世論 What Japan Thinks

Although the main holiday season is over, this survey by DIMSDRIVE Research into booking lodgings for domestic travel was actually conducted in May, although DIMSDRIVE only got round to publishing it this month.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 22nd of August 2008 9,862 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.7% of the sample were female, 1.0% in their teens, 14.3% in their twenties, 34.5% in their thirties, 30.2% in their forties, 13.9% in their fifties, and 6.1% aged sixty or older.

The only domestic travel I’ve taken this year was a three-day business trip to Tokyo, but this survey is concerned with leisure travel However, wifey booked a night at Kansai Airport before our flight overseas via the internet – if you do stay at the Nikko hotel there it’s well worth joining their members’ club as you get a free room upgrade ticket for your troubles.
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This report by DIMSDRIVE Research into breakfast goes into far more detail than is healthy, I suspect! The fieldwork was conducted over three months ago, but it didn’t get published until last month. It’s also a subject that has been covered before on this blog.

Demographics

Between the 30th of April and 8th of May 2008 7,965 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were female, 1.0% in their teens, 13.4% in their twenties, 36.1% in their thirties, 29.9% in their forties, 13.4% in their fifties, and 6.2% aged sixty or older.

I eat breakfast in every day (barring horrendous oversleeping!), but my special treat once every couple or months or so is to head down to a local English-style cafe and indulge in their full English breakfast, or if I’m running a little late, an early afternoon tea.
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With the new taspo (short for tobacco passport) system gradually being introduced across Japan, this recent survey from DIMSDRIVE Research Inc into taspo sheds some light on what may be in store.

Demographics

Between the 2nd and 10th of April 2008 6,727 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 61.1% of the sample was female, 1.2% in their teens, 17.2% in their twenties, 35.9% in their thirties, 27.3% in their forties, 13.2% in their fifties, and 5.2% aged sixty or older. 59 people, or 0.9%, lived in the two trial prefectures where the taspo system has gone live, namely Miyazaki and Kagoshima.

The taspo card has two functions; one is as a proof of age card, the other is electronic cash. However, the electronic cash system is completely incompatible with all other systems, and none of the questions in this survey asked about this feature.

In Q6 you can see most people think there will be little or no effect on under-age smoking due to the introduction of the card. There’s a million and one other cheaper ways that smoking could be reduced in Japan, with forcing Japan Tobacco out of self-denial being high up on the list. As a quick translation, they say (a) that smoking is just one factor combined with environment, stress, eating habits, genetics, exercise, etc and (b) cancer only develops in mice when you attach the equivalent of thousands or tens of thousands of ciggies-worth of tar to their skin. Go to any of the privately-owned brewers’ web sites and there’s a message on the front page about under-age drinking and not drinking when pregnant or nursing. On the other hand, see if you can find the health (dis)information on JT’s Smokers Style site, without cheating and using the site map link.
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With the hay fever season upon us, and predictions of between three to five times the amount of cedar pollen flying around compared to last year, and with yellow sand from China also paying a visit, this recent survey from DIMSDRIVE Research into hay fever is quite timely.

Demographics

Between the 6th and 14th of February 2008 10,665 members of the DIMSDRIVE Monitors completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample was female, 1.2% in their teens, 14.9% in their twenties, 35.8% in their thirties, 29.1% in their forties, 13.3% in thei fifties, and 5.7% aged sixty or older.

Pictured above is Hello Kitty-branded Hana (nose) Celeb lotion-impregnated tissues that may or may not prevent redness after blowing one’s nose a lot while suffering from hay fever.

The thing that irritates me the most about hay fever in others is the Japanese reluctance to blow their noses in public, as it is too embarrassing compared to pulling a face as one makes sniffing noises at regular intervals. It’s almost enough to get me over my dislike of MP3 players and drown out the rest of the carriage on the ride home.

I don’t get cedar hay fever fortunately, although I do have a couple of other allergies that usually result in a runny nose and the occassional sneeze.

Last year I looked at a similar survey into hay fever by MyVoice that might be a useful cross-reference.
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The big health buzzword last year and this has been metabolic syndrome, or metabo as it is abbreviated in Japan. For Japanese people to be diagnosed as metabolic syndrome you must have at least three of the following five signs. For men, waist over 90 cm, for women over 80 cm; blood pressure greater than 130/85 mmHg, neutral fat of 150 mg/dL or more; HDL (good cholesterol) of under 40 mg/dL for men, 50 mg/dL for women; and blood sugar over 100 mg/dL. However, there appears to be slight regional variations for these measures. Anyway, DIMSDRIVE Research recently performed a survey to find out about health checks.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 31st of January 2008 9,863 members of the DIMSDRIVE Monitor pool completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.3% of the sample was female, 1.2% in their teens, 14.8% in their twenties, 36.3% in their thirties, 29.1% in their forties, 13.0% in their fifties, and 5.6% aged sixty or older.

All Japanese companies are required to provide regular health checks for their employees; the company I work for once a year gets everyone in for eyes, ears, blood pressure, urine test, poo test and chest xray, and for older people barium meal, ECG, and blood test. In addition they have another annual test of physical strength, with grip strength measurement, bike riding, sit-ups, reaction time, blood vessel hardness and balancing on one leg.
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This week too was a bit thin for silly surveys, so the best I can do for you today is a not really silly and not really very long, but quite interesting pair of surveys from DIMSDRIVE Research’s 133rd ranking survey on two Japanese teeth-related subjects, frequency of brushing and oral care other than brushing.

Demographics

Both surveys were conducted between the 16th and 24th of January 2008. The first had 12,020 respondents with 52.9% female, the second 11,963 with 53.0% female.

You’ll notice in the second question that regular check-ups feature really quite low, and flossing or inter-dental brushing (uggh, dislike both and don’t bother myself) feature nowhere, not even in the detailed run-down of the results by age group. Also, there are only about 5,000 votes in total, which means about half the population don’t take extra any oral care bar brushing. For those of you who have experienced oyaji breath you might be surprised to learn that it was young men rather than older ones who were more likely to brush less than once a day or not at all.

I also chew Xylitol gum after every meal at home; PLUS X Gum from Lotte is exceptionally nice.
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I haven’t been to karaoke for years, mainly due to being tone deaf and preferring to go home rather than staying up boozing until all hours! A Swiss friend of mine used to go to sing enka on the whole, and take full advantage of the all-you-can-drink offer they ran at Jumbo Karaoke by knocking back at least five pints of Asahi in two hours! To find out how the average Japanese views karaoke, DIMSDRIVE Research conducted a survey on this very topic.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 20th of December 2007 9,271 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 54.9% were female, 1.5% in their teens, 15.5% in their twenties, 36.1% in their thirties, 28.6% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 5.6% aged sixty or older.

There’s no good data to graph here, so instead let’s have a Hello Kitty Karaoke Party!

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I haven’t been to karaoke for years, mainly due to being tone deaf and preferring to go home rather than staying up boozing until all hours! A Swiss friend of mine used to go to sing enka on the whole, and take full advantage of the all-you-can-drink offer they ran at Jumbo Karaoke by knocking back at least five pints of Asahi in two hours! To find out how the average Japanese views karaoke, DIMSDRIVE Research conducted a survey on this very topic.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 20th of December 2007 9,271 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 54.9% were female, 1.5% in their teens, 15.5% in their twenties, 36.1% in their thirties, 28.6% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 5.6% aged sixty or older.

When I once went to karaoke there was a great Japanese punk song that had nonsense English lyrics that when sung sort-of sounded like Japanese, but I never found out the name of the song. That was a pretty dull anecode, I must admit, but it’s the best I’ve got… I got rather disenchanted with the whole affair after going there with Japanese colleagues who spent their time singing 1970s ballads and anime theme songs.
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My main role in housework is hoovering up the rubbish (and anyone complaining about my British English will be summarily banned ) every Sunday morning, so this recent survey conducted by DIMSDRIVE Research into vacuum cleaners is right up my street.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 13th of December 2007 8,803 members of the DIMSDRIVE Monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 59.7% of the sample was female, 0.5% in their teens, 15.7% in their twenties, 37.4% in their thirties, 28.6% in their forties, 13.1% in their fifties, and 4.7% aged sixty or older. 48.9% had children (up to what age is not specified) at home, 12.8% lived by themselves, 23.3% with one other person, 24.8% with two others, 25.1% with three others, and 14.0% with four or more others. Pet ownership is interesting enough to merit a separate table!

I change the paper bag whenever the warning light comes on; our machine has a voice feature that gives a verbal alert too once the bag is seriously full. One of the reasons we chose the exact model was the accessory set which includes a brush for doing on top of beds, but my favourite feature is a button on the head that I can depress with my foot to undock it, leaving me with a smaller head for getting down the side of the fridge or round behind furniture. It also has a dust sensor, but I feel it doesn’t work properly – perhaps it is too easy for dust to build up on the sensor?

And Hello Kitty sucks!

[part 1] [part 2]

My main role in housework is hoovering up the rubbish (and anyone complaining about my British English will be summarily banned ) every Sunday morning, so this recent survey conducted by DIMSDRIVE Research into vacuum cleaners is right up my street.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 13th of December 2007 8,803 members of the DIMSDRIVE Monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 59.7% of the sample was female, 0.5% in their teens, 15.7% in their twenties, 37.4% in their thirties, 28.6% in their forties, 13.1% in their fifties, and 4.7% aged sixty or older. 48.9% had children (up to what age is not specified) at home, 12.8% lived by themselves, 23.3% with one other person, 24.8% with two others, 25.1% with three others, and 14.0% with four or more others. Pet ownership is interesting enough to merit a separate table!

I’ve read a lot about cyclones and Dysons in particular, and they are rated highly by their owners, but I have this overriding suspicion that the users are like Mac owners, smug about their premium purchase, so they are trying to justify to themselves as much as to everyone else the extra expense.

I got the impression when I was in the UK that upright cleaners were the more popular type, but as this is not What Britain Thinks, I cannot find any statistics to confirm or deny this suspicion; here in Japan the default is the canister type, as this survey reveals.
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