世論 What Japan Thinks

Recently there has been a lot of moral panic (some justified, some unjustified) about schoolkids and their mobile phone usage in Japan, with a number of schools introducing various bans on usage. To find out what kids are up to these days, MacroMill Inc looked at high school students and mobile phones.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 17th of September 2009 300 high school students (therefore aged between 15 and 18) completed a private mobile phone-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female. Note that the sample will be over-represented by heavier mobile phone users, so perhaps the figures here for usage of mobile phones in class, for instance, are higher than they are in reality, or at least I hope that is the case.

As I know there are a few people who teach in Japanese schools amongst my readership, I’d love to hear from you on how the results of this survey fit with your experiences at the chalkface.

I find it quite amazing that more students use their phones in the bath than in class! However, the fact that almost one in six admit to using them regularly in class is a pretty depressing statistic.
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Here’s a rather interesting survey from goo Research and Keio University’s SFC Research Centre into information sources for the personal learning process.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 18th of May 2009 1,050 members of the goo Research consumer monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.4% of the sample were female, 20.3% in their teens, 19.7% in their twenties, 19.6% in their thirties, 20.2% in their forties, and 20.2% aged fifty or older.

As a resident of Japan, one problem I have in the office with officially-sponsored learning is that it is all in Japanese! However, one great way to avoid these language problems at a low cost is provided by the company that Koichi at Tofugu works with as a tutor. The people at eduFire offer low-cost online training in a million and one topics (well, currently at least 27 major ones with lots of sub-topics) through the internet using Skype. One of Koichi’s specialities is Japanese language courses, and from what I’ve seen of his stuff, I can heartily recommend him and have confidence that the rest of the services offered will also be well worth the money. The tutors there are all available for realtime interaction, all just a mouse click away.

It’s not free, but just $29 (2,600 yen or so) gets you a one month unlimited access SuperPass for not just Japanese lessons, but lots of other courses like marketing, Confucius Philosophy, or indeed English, stuff that could cost you hundreds of thousands of yen through traditional routes. For a cheap preview, they also offer one week for one dollar, so you can give it a go with minimal risk. This is cheaper that the free lessons I’ve seen at my regional international centre, once you factor in travelling expenses, as you’re in the classroom right now!

Career stagnation is a problem that many face, so in these tough economic times $29 per month to improve your CV/resume is a cheap way to help yourself out!

Disclosure: What Japan Thinks receives a commission from eduFire for completed sign-ups.
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As I’ve just recently had a request from work to complete some online training, this recent survey from Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com into e-learning is quite timely for me.

Demographics

Over the 7th and 8th of January 2009 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 20.0% in their fifties, and 20.0% aged sixty or older.

The training I’ve been asked to complete is some stuff on copyright and intellectual property, all in Japanese of course, in some sort of Flash-based presentation that I’ve not tried yet. I once did a similar course with quite nice software that came with full text of all the script, so I could easily cut-and-paste words I didn’t understand into a dictionary. However, the course was ridiculously easy; it just seemed like a way to force you to sit through 10 or 15 hours of lectures, with the implication, of course, that you do it all on your own time, not at work.
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I’m sure in school and university we all got our fill of scientific laws and principles that we have long-since forgotten bar the names. To see how the Japanese fare on this, goo Ranking performed this survey on remembered names but forgotton details of scientific principles.

Demographics

Between the 24th and 26th of September 2008 1,044 members of the goo Research online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.6% of the sample were male, 5.8% in their teens, 12.7% in their twenties, 32.3% in their thirties, 27.6% in their forties, 12.3% in their fifties, and 9.3% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

I’d never heard of the Mpemba effect before, and the first one I could definitely explain is Schrödinger’s Cat. I got Einstein’s theories confused - E=mc2 is special relativity; general relativity is gravity and time dilation. I only managed three others I could recall! How did you get on?
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I’m not really up on the issues myself regarding national testing, but I am against the whole culture of testing in Japan. I am all for publishing the results of regular examinations, but not tests for the sake of tests. However, I would appear to be very much in the minority according to the results of this survey into national educational level testing, conducted by goo Research in conjunction with the Mainichi Shimbun.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 19th of October 2008 1,075 mmbers of the goo Research monitor group aged twenty or older completed a private online questionnaire. No further demographics information was provided.

I’m a bit confused in Q1 why there is an answer “both the school and local authority level”, as it is a trivial task to take the school results and sum them up by area. Also, Q1SQ1 and Q1SQ2 should really be multiple choice questions and there are no “don’t knows”, so I suspect there has been some post-processing of the results for presentation.
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I’m gobsmacked that a smack in the gob is considered acceptable corporal punishment by about three in five Japanese! This is just one result from a genuinely shocking survey on corporal punishment.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 25th of June 2008 467 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a pirvate internet-based questionnaire. 52% of the sample were male, 13.9% in their twenties, 46.0% in their thirties, 31.9% in their forties, and 8.1% of other ages.

I hope I’m not making a huge mistake with the translation here, as the results are so counter-intuitive to my western mind. In Q4, I think the question is what people think is appropriate as a means of punishment for students. Any advice on the correctness or otherwise of this assumption is most welcome. I’m also a bit shakey on Q2.

The Japanese phrase used for corporal punishment in this survey is 愛のムチ, ai no muchi, which translated as “tough love”. According to Japanese law I believe it is banned in school, although according to many people I know who work in Japanese schools it is very much alive and kicking.
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I’ve got a couple of Nintendo DS learning games, but I don’t have a DS to play them on, but that’s another story. Today’s story is a survey from goo Research, in conjuction with the Research Institute for Digital Media and Content at Keio University into game machine and computer-based self-study.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 25th of February 2008 (although the results were only posted on the 17th of June) 1,063 members of the goo Research consumer monitor group in employement completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The male:female split was 50:50, with the extra odd person being male. The age range is not noted, however. By employment status, 2.9% were senior management, 8.8% middle management, 10.2% lower management, 27.2% ordinary employees, 8.0% contract or dispatch employees, 13.7% part-time or temporary, 26.0% students, and 3.2% others.

At work we have various e-learning courses available that vary from free to quite expensive, with the company usually paying half of the fees, as long as you sit the exams at the end or complete most of the coursework, etc. I’m not sure how many people actually use the facilities though!

Here the term e-learning means online training on either the internet or intranet.
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Here’s another quick but fun survey from goo Ranking for your Sunday enjoyment; what did you find surprising when you entered further education.

Demographics

Over the 21st and 22nd of February 2008 1,052 people from the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.7% were female, 6.4% in their teens, 15.7% in their twenties, 31.0% in their thirties, 26.6% in their forties, 11.2% in their fifties, and 9.1% aged sixty or over. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

When I started uni in Scotland, I think the most surprising thing I realised was that women… I’d better not finish that one as my wife and mother read my blog!
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goo Research, in conjunction with All About Japan recently conducted a survey into the matter of young women and studying.

Demographics

Between the 26th and 31st of March 2008 1,052 female members of the goo Research monitor panel aged between 25 and 44 and who lived in Tokyo or the three surrounding prefectures completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 25.3% were between 25 and 29 years, old, 24.8% between 30 and 34, 24.4% between 35 and 39, and 25.5% between 40 and 44. 66.6% were married.

Note that studying is a rather broad heading here, covering anything with an instructor involved. Also, only training started from age 20 or older is considered; doing ballet as a kid doesn’t count.

The one thing I’m studying, or at least should be studying, is kanji; I hope to sit the test for the next level in October. The one thing I want to learn is the game of go. When I was a kid I played it, but it would be nice to get formal lessons from somewhere.

I am also learning how to write headlines for blog posts that attract clicks…
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Here’s another quickie survey today (sorry, a bit busy these days to concentrate on long translations!), again reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by Marsh into the matter of e-learning.

Demographics

Between the 26th and 31st of March 2008 300 members of the Marsh internet monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. The sexes were split 50:50, and by age 20.0% were in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 13.3% in their fifties, and 6.7% aged sixty or older.

I once tried an internet site that offered Kanji Kentei training, but I didn’t really enjoy it much, and anyway now there’s Nintendo DS software for kanji practice for round about the same price as three months on the web site, why bother? Talking of the DS, looking at the results below it seems that e-learning here means internet-delivered contents, not software.
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