世論 What Japan Thinks

DIMSDRIVE Research are the latest company to publish the results of their survey into The Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster.

Demographics

Between the 25th and 28th of March 2011 9,948 members of the DIMSDRIVE Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 56.4% of the sample were male, 0.6% in their teens, 6.5% in their twenties, 23.5% in their thirties, 33.7% in their forties, 21.4% in their fifties, and 14.3% aged sixty or older.

There are a number of questions related to power cuts; however, since the survey was conducted TEPCO has announced that they have got the power supply situation under control, and there will be no more scheduled power cuts, although we just have to wait and see what the summer will hold for us.

Although I’m far away from the affected area, getting hold of water was the biggest problem. Almost all the bottled water was sold out, barring the fizzy stuff like Perrier. I don’t eat pot noodles and only the very occasional boil-in-the-bag curry, but these also disappeared off the shelves in a flash. Currently the biggest problem is that many yoghurt factories have been knocked out, but fortunately our nearest supermarket has a brand from the local area, a really rich and creamy one that will be replacing our previous more expensive mass-produced brand.
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Home use water coolers, or water servers as they are known in Japan, directly importing a less-popular English term for them into Japanese, were the subject of a recent survey from DIMSDRIVE Research.

Demographics

Between the 19th and 25th of January 2011 a massive 89,713 people completed a public internet-based questionnaire. 53.3% of the sample were male, 10.7% in their twenties, 29.3% in their thirties, 31.5% in their forties, 19.4% in their fifties, and 9.1% aged sixty or older. From that group 50 people with each of the top ten brands of water server were chosen to answer further questions between the 25th and 27th of January 2011. This sub-sample consisted of 60.4% male, 13.0% in their twenties, 30.0% in their thirties, 27.2% in their forties, 21.4% in their fifties, and 8.4% aged sixty or older.

I’ve not seen a home-use water cooler in Japan, although looking at the web sites linked in Q1SQ below, they all look just the same as office-use ones. Also, given the average Japanese home size, it would be difficult to find a place for one in many homes, I suspect.

Looking at two of the web sites for prices, I see that the water works out at around 100 yen per litre, which is if anything slightly more expensive than standard two-litre bottles of water from a supermarket, and definitely dearer than buying mineral water by the case, then of course there is the rental on top of that.

Anyway, I have a built-in water purifier which is good enough, and on hot summer days I just put a jug of it into the fridge.
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Here’s another rather slow set of results from DIMSDRIVE Research (although, of course I’m most grateful for making the data public) into theme parks and funfairs.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 27th of May 2010 8,164 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.9% of the sample were male, 0.9% in their teens, 11.4% in their twenties, 31.6% in their thirties, 32.4% in their forties, 15.9% in their fifties, and 7.8% aged sixty or older. As a further demographic, 62.2% were married.

I personally hate roller coasters, in particular the lift part, both from the point of view of heights (I’m not terribly good with them) and the slow wind-up. The most recent one I rode was at Universal Studios Japan, which has slightly reclining seats so you are basically horizontal on the way up, and my wife (who loves them) was telling me how she found it scary when she had ridden before. Getting off these things I have terrible rubber legs but a strange feeling of relief for having survived. My worst experience was on a tea cup kind of ride (in Japan it’s called a coffee cup) which little to my knowledge beforehand tilted up to around sixty degrees, but with no seat belts, just an iron bar to brace against. At the same theme park (Expoland, now closed after a fatal accident) on another day with work colleagues one woman had to be pushed onto a kiddie-oriented haunted house-type of tunnel ride that featured not much more than a few static glow-in-the-dark bats.

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With all the cold weather recently, this survey from DIMSDRIVE Reseach may help you choose what kind of thermal underwear is best.

Demographics

Between the 1st and 16th of December 2010 5,915 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.2% of the sample were male, 0.7% in their teens, 9.8% in their twenties, 30.2% in their thirties, 33.3% in their forties, 16.3% in their fifties, and 9.7% aged sixty or older.

When I was a kid the only thermal underwear was Damart, which still look as naff as I remember from then! Now, however, new materials such as UniQlo’s Heattech mean that clothes can be both fashionable and warm. My wife has a good number of their turtleneck tops, but all I have are two cheap-and-nasty last-generation U-neck inners. Note that this survey is only concerned with these new kinds of material.
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The latest company to jump into the fray by covering the tobacco tax hike and quitting smoking were DIMSDRIVE Research.

Demographics

Between the 6th and 21st of October 2010 5,170 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.0% of the sample were female, 14.2% in their twenties, 36.8% in their thirties, 33.8% in their forties, 13.3% in their fifties, and 1.9% aged sixty or older.

In Q2SQ2, how much cheaper a pack people switched to, the average was over 100 yen a pack; given the tax rise was about 100 yen, they cancel themselves out, but as far as I am aware almost brands are within 40 or 50 yen of each other, so I don’t really know how people managed to save over 100 yen, unless they were talking about per case of 200 or some other bulk-buying.

At two of my favourite restaurants the number of smokers has dropped to either none or just one group recently, although I don’t know how much that has to do with the rise in duty.
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Here’s an interesting look by DIMSDRIVE Research at one particular Japanese word, 面倒くさい, mendokusai, bothersome. The word can be literally translated as “the smell of trouble”, and I always internally translated it as “a pain in the bum”, thus the title of today’s post.

Demographics

Between the 28th of April and the 12th of May 2010 13,802 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group managed to make enough effort to fill in a private online questionnaire. 52.4% of the sample were male, 0.6% in their teens, 8.5% in their twenties, 28.1% in their thirties, 32.8% in their forties, 18.9% in their fifties, and 11.0% aged sixty or older.

Here’s one Japanese-English dictionary with a number of example sentences.

I often mutter mendokusai under my breath at work, usually at procedures at work that are far more complicated than they need be. I did spend five minutes typing out a description of one of the work procedures, but then realised that there’s another even bigger pain in the bum, but as it’s too mendokusai for me to type it out, tough!

I’ll stick with mendokusai throughout this article, because as you can see from Q2SQ1, there are many nuances.
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One of the top tourist spots in Tokyo is Tokyo Tower, and a new tourist attraction under construction is the Tokyo Sky Tree, so this survey took a look at what people think of Tokyo Tower and Tokyo Sky Tree.

Demographics

Between the 27th of May and the 10th of June 2010 8,199 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was 50.0% male, 0.8% were in their teens, 11.1% in their twenties, 31.5% in their thirties, 31.8% in their forties, 16.9% in their fifties, and 7.9% aged sixty or older.

Tokyo Sky Tree is a dreadful name (yes, they use the English words) but it’s an amazing tower. When complete it will be 634 metres high to the tip of its antenna, the tallest tower in the world. The height is easy to remember as it’s a mnemonic (why is that word so hard to remember how to spell?) for Musashi, the old name for the area in which it was built. Enough talk, here’s a picture of it from TANAKA Juuyoh on flickr.

DIMSDRIVE Research recently reported on a survey from the start of the year into taking lessons, excluding formal education.

Demographics

Between the 31st of March and the 15th of April 2010 7,833 members of the DIMSDRIVE Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 1.1% in their teens, 12.3% in their twenties, 32.6% in their thirties, 30.7% in their forties, 16.0% in their fifties, and 7.3% aged sixty or older.

I’m currently not studying anything, although I’d like to go to Go classes, as I used to play quite often when I was a kid. My wife recommends singing lessons, but I fear my tone deafness would try the patience of any teacher!
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DIMSDRIVE Research recently published a survey from April that they conducted into views on marriage.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 29th of April 2010 7,764 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group comnpleted a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.6% of the sample were male, 0.9% in their teens, 10.8% in their twenties, 30.6% in their thirties, 32.0% in their forties, 17.3% in their fifties, and 8.4% aged sixty or older.

I think Q3 should be an essential point of reference for any journalist writing about konkatsu, showing that just 3% of single people are hunting for a wedding partner, and the other 13% doing something might just be asking friends if they know anyone unattached.

Talking of konkatsu, I found this silly little story about the Lucky Star cartoon-featured Washinomiya Shrine’s otaku dating event.
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A recent survey from DIMSDRIVE Research took a look at women’s excess body hair, and found hairy armpits the biggest concern for them, and ordinary manual shaving the most popular way of getting rid of it.

Demographics

Between the 9th and 24th of June 2010 8,334 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.1% of the sample were male, 0.7% in their teens, 11.0% in their twenties, 31.4% in their thirties, 31.6% in their forties, 16.9% in their fifties, and 8.4% aged sixty or older. Furthermore, 63.2% were married, and of the remaining 3,065, 28.7% had a partner, 63.4% did not, and 7.9% just didn’t want to say.

I don’t think my wife gets too bothered by excess hair; by that I mean that she doesn’t have much in the first place. She’s forever shaving her eyebrows, but that’s for beauty reasons so she can draw them back on with a pencil.
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