世論 What Japan Thinks

I must admit to being pretty much completely ignorant when it comes to manga, but I always suspect many of my visitors are avid readers, therefore I hope this pair of ranking surveys from DIMSDRIVE Research as part of their 138th Ranking Research into what manga made one cry and what manga would one recommend to others will be of interest.

Demographics

Between the 27th of March and the 3rd of April 2008 6,399 members of the DIMSDRIVE Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample was female, 1.4% in their teens, 16.5% in their twenties, 36.0% in their thirties, 28.1% in their forties, 12.6% in their fifties, and 5.4% aged sixty or older.

About the only manga I’ve read has been Darling ha Gaikokujin, which I can recommend. Note that they are explicitly referring to books here, not TV or movie adaptations or original stories.

In Q1, men chose exclusively male-targetted titles for their top ten, but women had both male and female titles.
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Here’s a quickie but interesting ranking survey from DISMDRIVE Research into if one had the cash to invest, what stocks might one like to buy.

Demographics

Between the 27th of February and 3rd of March 2008 7,345 members of the DIMSDRIVE Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire.

Before I go any further, I better make it clear that this is merely a translation of a survey, and I have no direct investments in the companies listed, I am not a professional, please do not make investment decisions based on this article, and other disclaimers…

I’m surprised, but then also not suprised, that JAL rates so highly, as they seem to be on dodgy financial ground, but they are the national carrier, so perhaps symbolism and patriotism outweighs financial due diligence.

It’s also interesting to note that there are few out-and-out technology companies and certainly no internet-focused companies on the list; Nintendo is perhaps the closest, but they sell hardware as much as software, Sony is mostly home electronics, and SoftBank is as much about infrastructure and handset resale as communication. Seven Bank, a new online and offline bank run by the same group that owns the 7-11 convenience store chain is perhaps the most revolutionary company on the list.
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Here’s a fun little ranking survey from DIMSDRIVE Research: as part of their 117th Ranking Survey they asked members of their monitor group what they did when by themselves in a lift (or elevator).

Demographics

Between the 9th and 17th of May 2007 7,735 members of their monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 44.3% of the sample was male.

I can guess what you’re thinking is one of the things the Japanese do, and yes, they do admit to doing that! The women are not as frequent as the men, despite a suspicion I had that perhaps they saved them up from when they were at home.
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Having previously looked with DIMSDRIVE Ranking at average sleep times, and more recently with goo Ranking on avoiding nodding off at the wheel, this time let’s look at drowsiness with DIMSDRIVE Ranking’s 115th survey – how often one feels drowsy, at what time of the day one feels drowsy, and what one does to counter drowsiness.

I get drowsy about 9pm or so most nights, but I just have to try to endure it until bed time, although looking at the survey it only deals with sleepiness during the day time. It’s quite amazing, however, that at least one colleague at least once per week falls asleep during meetings, or at least closes his eyes and appears to be lightly dozing. When there is mass meetings, mass snoozing is never far behind, although that might be due to the majority of speakers being deathly dull…
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As part of their 113th Ranking Research, DIMSDRIVE Research looked at what people’s little luxuries were.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 22nd of March 5,537 members of their online community successfully completed a private internet-based survey. 45.0% of the sample was male.

It’s interesting to note that seven out of the ten directly involve eating, and one could argue that taking a trip to an onsen is as much for the food as the bath. By the way, I don’t know why “eating out” and “eating at a restaurant” are listed separately, although I suspect if they grouped together all the eating options there might not be many other answers left!
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DIMSDRIVE Ranking recently published as part of their 106th ranking survey what award people would like to win. 5,086 people were asked what they thought over five days at the start of December 2006. Note that some of the awards are made-up.

For some reason Japan sticks “-ist” on the end of many of these awards, such as the Best Jeanist mentioned in the headline. Perhaps if Alfred Nobel had been born Japanese, rather than lend his name to those prizes, he might very well have named them “Best Brainist”. Or perhaps not.

In sort-of related news, Tokyo Times covers the recent Best Pearl Dresser award in its own inimitable style.
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As part of their 102nd Ranking Survey, DIMSDRIVE Research looked at average sleep time. 5,391 members of their monitor pool responded to their internet-based questionnaire at the start of October. In related news, Mutantfrog Travelogue reported on a recent government survey (which I might translate in full later) that showed the average Japanese person wakes up at 6:43AM.

Whether the figures below are for an average weekday, or if they include weekends, I don’t really know. Also unclear is whether time spent trying to fall asleep or dozing in the morning is included. For myself, I’m lucky to get 6 hours on weekdays and perhaps just around 8 hours on weekends. With the holidays coming up, I’d love to get a solid 8 hours kip for a week, but…

Note that women get only slightly more sleep than men – although the average salaryman may come home late from work or the pub after the wife has gone to bed, it is the lot of the housewife to wake earlier to prepare breakfast and packed lunches for her hubby and offspring.
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DIMSDRIVE Research recently published as part of their 103rd Ranking Research the results of a questionnaire to discover what people envied about the opposite sex. Over a week in mid-November 2,373 men and 2,334 women from their monitor group supplied their answers.

This appears to be just a fun, perhaps even silly, question, but when you look at the answers you see a lot of honest, even bitter, opinions on how people view the opposite sex. It’s also interesting how women envy men because men don’t need to do the things the men envy in women. (I don’t think that makes much sense…)
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As part of their 104th Ranking Research, DIMSDRIVE Research asked 5,003 members of its monitor group why it was good that they were born Japanese. This poll was conducted towards the end of November.

When I first read this I laughed out loud at the item ranked second, and I think everyone else who has lived in Japan will raise at least a wry smile when they see probably the most groan-worthy stereotypical nihonjinron-like answer.

If I had to choose the top reasons why I’m happy that I was born Scottish, I’d probably choose the Scottish socialistic (with a small ‘s’) character, the great outdoors, our football team that can inspire both laughter and tears, something to do with our culture and heritage, and, of course, that I wasn’t born English.
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As part of DIMSDRIVE Research’s 94th Ranking Survey, they asked members of their monitor group to tell them the best way to get rich quick. This survey used a new to me kanji expression, 一攫千金, ikkaku senkin, meaning, as you might guess from the title of this post, get rich quick.

Not surprisingly, number one by a long, long way is the tax on the stupid, the lottery. Share dealing’s rating no doubt hasn’t been helped by the ongoing recession and the livedoor incident.
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