This recent survey from DIMSDRIVE Research into pets had interesting information regarding insurance, but sadly the number of pets per person were not reported, a figure that would have helped in understanding some of the numbers.
Demographics
Between the 11th and 26th of March 2009 10,501 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was 50:50 male and female (one more female than male, but she was lost in rounding), 1.1% were in their teens, 13.1% in their twenties, 33.8% in their thirties, 30.6% in their forties, 14.7% in their fifties, and 6.7% aged sixty or older. Additional demographic information included 51.4% lived in a house, 33.5% in a flat, 12.7% in an apartment, and 2.4% in other accommodation.
I really don’t like pet shops in Japan at all; the cages on display are far too small, and they take the animals away from their mothers too early – about six weeks is the standard figure, while they are still cute enough to sell. I remember last year seeing one male kitten that was so desparate for mother’s milk that it had taken to sucking his own nipple, pulling out a lot of his own hair and leaving a big ugly raw-red mark on his chest. Read the rest of this entry »
With Father’s Day being next weekend, here’s a timely look with DIMSDRIVE Research at a popular gift for this time of year, electric razors.
Demographics
Between the 13th and 28th or May 2009 9,897 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 50.3% of the sample were male, 1.0% in their teens, 13.0% in their twenties, 34.4% in their thirties, 30.3% in their forties, 15.1% in their fifties, and 6.2% aged sixty or older. 63.5% of the sample were married, although I don’t know if that has any significance towards the results.
Both my electric shavers have been presents from the wife. The first was a rather naff Hitachi single-headed alkali battery-operated one that required me to use a razor once a week or more to catch all the bits that it missed, and my current Braun was free via credit card mileage points. I use shaving gel to set up my skin, and barring quite poor performance around the Adam’s apple area, I’m quite happy.
You’ll note that there is no question “do you have a beard, thus no need to shave?”, or even asking how the beard trimming features of the shaver is. Read the rest of this entry »
Recently, DIMSDRIVE Research took a look at the matter of moving house.
Demographics
Between the 25th of February and the 12th of March 2009 10,789 members of the DIMSDRIVE Monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 50.5% of the sample were female, 0.8% in their teens, 13.3% in their twenties, 33.6% in their thirties, 30.7% in their forties, 15.2% in their fifties, and 6.4% aged sixty or older.
I’ve got a lot of tales about removals in Japan! The last time I was involved in one was when my parents-in-law moved; my wife organised lots of quotes through the internet, but her father accepted the first one he got, as they gave him a free kilo of rice, even though the company has a less than stellar reputation.
On the day of the removals they brought only two, not three staff to do the packing, the pick-up was delayed, so instead of arriving at the new place at 4pm as promised, it was 10pm, so tradesmen we’d asked to come in to fit the air conditioners, etc, had to go home and come back the next day. To cap it all off, there was some sort of get-out clause in the contract so we couldn’t claim any compensation off them. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the Japanese government’s economic stimulus plans is to decrease the tolls on all roads to just 1,000 yen maximum per day on weekends and public holidays starting on the 28th or March, and from the 12th March 2009 they also introduced a subsidy of 5,250 yen for cars and 15,750 yen for motorcyclists who fitted ETC devices, Electronic Toll Collection devices, as the system only applies to ETC card holders. To see what people thought of this, DIMSDRIVE Research loooked at ETC purchase support system and toll road usage discounts.
Demographics
Between the 4th and 16th of April 2009 5,547 driving license-holding, and with a family car, members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 0.2% aged 18 or 19, 11.8% in their twenties, 36.9% in their thirties, 29.9% in their forties, 14.9% in their fifties, and 6.3% aged sixty or older. 69.2% were the main users of a car, and the other 30.8% had access to the family vehicle.
Note that even without the discount system or for weekday usage, fitting an ETC makes sense as fees are slightly lower as you get charged for the exact distance you travel, not a rounded-up fee; on the Osaka to Kobe expressway, for instance, it is normally a flat fare of 700 yen, but with ETC if you only travel part-way you get a refund as you exit.
In Q9, it seems odd that even those without ETC will increase their usage.
One issue that gets swept under the carpet is the increase in CO2 and other pollutants caused by heavier vehicle usage, and also there may be heavier traffic, causing jams and higher fuel consumption from idling. Here’s an interesting set of figures found on Google about how small towns create disproportionate amounts of CO2. Read the rest of this entry »
Demographics
Betwen the 10th and 26th of February 2009 11,961 members of the DIMSDRIVE Monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.1% of the sample were male, 1.0% in their teens, 12.6% in their twenties, 33.2% in their thirties, 31.0% in their forties, 15.3% in their fifties, and 6.9% aged sixty or older. Note that since this is a PC internet-based online survey, there will be a bit of bias in the sample towards higher-earning households.
“Foreigners can’t get credit cards” is one of the most popular fallacies in Japan. It is true that foreigners, especially those younger, working on jobs with yearly contracts, and with no credit history in Japan do find it difficult, if not impossible, to get one, but there is no credible evidence of systematic discrimination against foreigners, as my walletful of Japanese plastic will attest to. I have experienced anomalies, however, such as when both my wife and I applied for a UFJ card, the bank that provides my mortgage and that I pay my salary into, and she got four times the credit limit that I got, despite zero salary!
The latest credit card I got was a Toho Cinema’s MasterCard, which is good value if you’re a regular cinema goer – six visits and you get the seventh visit free, and even discount tickets bought elsewhere count toward the six movies, and their online booking system is very smooth and bilingual.
Regarding Q3 and few being interested in card design, I actually cancelled a card because they stopped putting Miffy on the front… I also want to get a loud Hello Kitty card just to use abroad!
Have you ever been refused for a Japanese credit card?
With almost every day bringing more bad news of how the economic situation at both home and abroad is deteriorating, this recent survey from DIMSDRIVE Research into the economy is most timely.
Demographics
Between the 28th or January and the 11th of February 2009 10,233 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.2% of the sample were male, 1.0% in their teens, 12.5% in their twenties, 33.2% in their thirties, 29.9% in thri forties, 16.1% in their fifties, and 7.3% in their sixties. By occupation, 35.2% were full-time regular employees, 19.4% housewives, 11.3% part-time or casual, 7.6% unemployed, 6.9% self-employed, 6.1% contract workers or temps, 3.6% civil servants, 2.8% students, 2.6% freelance, 2.2% senior management or board-level, 0.9% other governmental organisation employees, and 1.4% in other jobs.
We’ve had major changes at the office due to our sales falling off a cliff. Overtime has been cut (this actually is a good thing, IMO), bonuses cut too due to a complex link between overtime and bonuses, management-level pay and expense account cuts, etc, etc. However, the best thing they could do is to address Warm Biz and Cool Biz as more than just a slogan and actually put some effort into ensuring that the air conditioning runs efficiently. How are you doing?
Last month’s survey on Blu-ray and HD DVD was rightly criticised for rather dubious data, let alone the small sample size, so hopefully I can make amends with this detailed report from DIMSDRIVE into Blu-ray recorders.
Demographics
Between the 15th and 30th of October 2008 9,141 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.1% of the sample were male, 1.2% in their teens, 12.8% in their twenties, 33.1% in their thirties, 30.5% in their forties, 15.% in their fifties, and 7.2% aged sixty or older. By household salary, 7.4% earned less than 2 million yen a year, 20.1% less than 4 million yen, 23.5% less than 6 million yen, 15.5% less than 8 million yen, 10.2% less than 10 million yen, 7.8% less than 15 million yen, and 1.9% over 15 million yen. 13.6% didn’t know or declined to answer.
When I reported last month’s survey it got picked up by an obscure corner of Kotaku, which was then picked up by another online mag and featured prominently, even getting onto Google News UK’s front page, but any credit to me got lost on the way. Mind you, if I had got a link back, I’d probably have had my old server blow up even earlier!
Eikichi Yazawa is an aging rocker who features in Sony adverts like this one:
Japan is well-known the world over for being a nation of newspaper readers, so on the surface the headline figure from this survey by DIMSDRIVE Research into newspaper purchase is not too big a surprise. A quick language note – in Japan 新聞, shimbun, is the Japanese for newspaper, which you could probably work out anyway from Q3!
Demographics
Between the 17th of September and the 2nd of October 2008 10,231 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitors completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were female, 1.2% in their teens, 13.4% in their twenties, 34.2% in their thirties, 30.2% in their forties, 14.8% in their fifties, and 6.2% aged sixty or older. By employement status, the three largest percentages were 40.4% full-time company employees, 20.7% homemakers, and 12.4% part-time or casual labour. By household income, 6.6% earned under 2 million yen per year, 19.8% under 4 million yen, 24.4% under 6 million yen, 15.3% under 8 million yen, 9.6% under 10 million yen, and 10.3% over 10 million yen. 14.0% were not saying or didn’t know.
One way that Japanese newspapers keep their print subscriptions up is to limit the amount they publish on their web sites. Most keep stories down to two or three paragraphs, often publishing just newswire articles, and expire them after just a few days.
If anything, the numbers reported here may be lower than actuality, as the third-biggest daily newspaper in Japan, the Seikyo Shimbun, is missing from the list. Whether this and other organisation’s dailies were explicitly excluded is not stated, as for instance the Shimbun Akahata (Red Flag – guess whose that is!) also shifts almost 1.7 million copies per day.
The photo is of Danny Choo being featured in a Japanese newspaper, from his flickr collection. I and many others, I think, are secdretly jealous that he gets such coverage and makes so much dosh just for doing the stuff he loves! Read the rest of this entry »
After mentioning in a survey earlier this week about how smoking was my second-favourite survey topic, along comes this survey from DMSDRIVE Research Inc on my favourite topic in Japan, tooth care, in particular electric toothbrushes. As a bonus, this survey also touches on the use of this equipment by smokers.
Demographics
Between the 20th and 27th of August 2008 9,029 memebers of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 51.6% of the sample were female, 1.2% in their teens, 13.4% in their twenties, 33.8% in their thirties, 29.9% in their forties, 14.9% in their fifties, and 6.8% aged sixty or older. As a bonus statistic, 27.2% were current smokers, 19.3% ex-smokers, and 53.5% had never smoked.
Note that Sunstar make cheap-and-cheerful battery-operated toothbrushes that they sell alongside their manual counterparts in almost all pharmacies and supermarkets, where as all the other manufacturers make proper brushes.
I have a Braun Oral-B that I bought with points from a credit card, but I only use it at the weekends as cleaning and drying after every use during the week is too much bother! Read the rest of this entry »
With the nationwide introduction of taspo, Tobacco pASsPOrt – a proof of age certificate (well, proof that someone over twenty applied for the card) – now complete, DIMSDRIVE Research took their second look at taspo. The first look at taspo by DIMSDRIVE was back in May.
Demographics
Between the 8th and 14th of August 2008 7,381 members of the DIMSDRIVE Research monitor group completed a members-only internet-based questionnaire. 52.3% of the sample were female, 1.1% in their teens, 13.5% in their twenties, 33.5% in their thirties, 30.6% in their forties, 14.6% in their fifties, and 6.7% aged sixty or older.
One obvious effect of taspo is that half as many smokers are now using cigarette vending machines, which must be a serious financial blow to people who have them outside their shops.
At a slight tangent, but my office sells ciggies by the case, and last week they started a promotion with a free gift per pack of 200, with the clip art reading “Thank you father”. Monday the 15th of September is Respect for the Aged Day, so I suspect they are promoting killing your parents with cancer kindness. Read the rest of this entry »
This recent survey from DIMSDRIVE Research into pets had interesting information regarding insurance, but sadly the number of pets per person were not reported, a figure that would have helped in understanding some of the numbers.
With Father’s Day being next weekend, here’s a timely look with DIMSDRIVE Research at a popular gift for this time of year, 
Recently, DIMSDRIVE Research took a look at the matter of 
One of the Japanese government’s economic stimulus plans is to decrease the tolls on all roads to just 1,000 yen maximum per day on weekends and public holidays starting on the 28th or March, and from the 12th March 2009 they also introduced a subsidy of 
This is a 
With almost every day bringing more bad news of how the economic situation at both home and abroad is deteriorating, this recent survey from DIMSDRIVE Research into 
Last month’s survey on 
After mentioning in a 
With the nationwide introduction of taspo, Tobacco pASsPOrt – a proof of age certificate (well, proof that someone over twenty applied for the card) – now complete, DIMSDRIVE Research took their second look at 
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