世論 What Japan Thinks

goo Ranking recently published the results of what painful fashion failures people trying too hard to dress young make.

Demographics

Over the 6th and 7th of March 2013 1,083 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.7% of the sample were female, 11.6% in their teens, 15.0% in their twenties, 24.9% in their thirties, 24.7% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 11.1% 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.

Wifey occasionally strays into number 2 territory, and of course what Japanese woman doesn’t do 20?

Pictured here is Saki chan and Sayuri; Saki chan often falls into a number of the traps when she does her Evangelion cos-play as here despite being just 29 years old, but Sayuri regularly does just about everything below, but I think she manages to avoid looking too muttonesque… However, her husband has an ill-suited number 17 haircut.
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goo Ranking reported on a survey into what women think men should check at a minimum regarding their personal grooming.

Demographics

Over the 6th and 7th of March 2013 1,083 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.7% of the sample were female, 11.6% in their teens, 15.0% in their twenties, 24.9% in their thirties, 24.7% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 11.1% 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. This question was for the females only.

Number 22, clothes not being creased (that is, ensuring they were recently ironed) is one that I never understand in Japan. Most people are well-dressed for almost every occasion, but ironing is usually skimped on (both men and women), and regardless of how trendy an item is, if it looks as if you put it on straight out of the washing machine it never looks good to me.
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goo Ranking published a survey on what behaviour by Japanese people abroad that they have seen and thought “I really shouldn’t do that sort of thing myself…”.

Demographics

Over the 6th and 7th of March 2013 1,083 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.7% of the sample were female, 11.6% in their teens, 15.0% in their twenties, 24.9% in their thirties, 24.7% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 11.1% 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.

As pictured above, as a foreigner who has participated in Japanese tours abroad, that sort of group photo behaviour is quite embarrassing from my point of view. Another behaviour that I witnessed that I would certainly never think of trying myself was when our tour was waiting by our bus, which happened to be a brightly-painted old-fashioned bus, when a young couple came along and asked one of our party if they could take their photo. After this was done, four of the middle-aged ladies in the group one after another asked if they could get their photo taken with the boyfriend, handing their camera to the girlfriend to make sure she was out of the picture.
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goo Ranking took a look at what guys can’t understand about female friendships and what girls can’t understand about male friendships.

Demographics

Over the 6th and 7th of March 2013 1,083 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.7% of the sample were female, 11.6% in their teens, 15.0% in their twenties, 24.9% in their thirties, 24.7% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 11.1% 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.

My wife does most of the things in Q1, and I don’t understand them at all either, so I’m glad to see it’s not just a cultural gap that I’m experiencing!
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goo Ranking took a look at what keyboard keys people frankly don’t really know how to use in Windows.

Demographics

Over the 6th and 7th of February 2013 1,122 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 60.1% of the sample were female, 10.2% in their teens, 16.6% in their twenties, 26.5% in their thirties, 25.0% in their forties, 11.1% in their fifties, and 10.6% 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.

Let’s have Hello Kitty again!

Note that for number 3 especially, to find out what the F-keys do they just need to press the help key… For myself, I only know what the unshifted F1, F5 and F10 do; I’m not aware of the Microsoft-recommended behaviour of the rest.
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Here is one of these rather odd surveys that goo Ranking is apt to do, a look (oo-err!) at when in a changing room with female friends, what aspect of their underwear can you not help being curious about. This question was for the women only.

Demographics

Over the 28th of February and 1st of March 2013 1,019 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 100.0% of the sample were female, 0.0% in their teens, 34.0% in their twenties, 33.3% in their thirties, 32.8% in their forties, 0.0% in their fifties, and 0.0% 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. This question was for the women only.

Here’s an interesting fact: in Japanese catalogues, the underwear models are almost exclusively white, western women. The reason is that if they are fellow Japanese, the women end up paying more attention to the model than the underwear.

Most of the high street underwear shops in Japan seem to feature designs that would be fitting for only either (a) a prostitute, or (b) a 14 year old girl.
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goo Ranking took a look at cute actions and habits of men that tug at women’s heartstrings.

Demographics

Over the 6th and 7th of February 2013 1,122 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 60.1% of the sample were female, 10.2% in their teens, 16.6% in their twenties, 26.5% in their thirties, 25.0% in their forties, 11.1% in their fifties, and 10.6% 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. This question was for the women only.
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goo Ranking recently took a look at the female body shapes that men like.

Demographics

Over the 6th and 7th of March 2013 1,083 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.7% of the sample were femle, 11.6% in their teens, 15.0% in their twenties, 24.9% in their thirties, 24.7% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 11.1% 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. This question was for the men only.

I am surprised that huge breasts appear lower down than small ones! My wife has a theory that tall foreign men prefer short Japanese women, although I wonder if it is just because we tend to remember the height mismatches and forget the more size-compatable couples?

Note that for weight, the four categories in ascending size are slim, average, well built, and fat. The other two statistics should be self-explanatory.
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goo Ranking seems to have started an interesting series looking at what typical behaviour one has experienced in food chains, with the first two being looked at being Starbucks and Subway.

Demographics

Over the 6th and 7th of March 2013 over 1,000 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. However, the link to the full demographics is not operating right now… 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 actually prefer Tully’s to Starbucks – Tully’s is usually not quite so packed, and their menu actually looks like a coffee shop menu. There’s probably also an element of me not wanting to be seen in place with so many foreigners…

I haven’t been to Subway for a while, although I will agree with number 15, their fried potato is excellent.
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This ranking survey from goo Ranking used a word I haven’t heard for a while, mottainai, “what a waste”, in a survey entitled what things at work do people think are mottainai?

Demographics

Over the 6th and 7th of February 2013 1,122 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 60.1% of the sample were female, 10.2% in their teens, 16.6% in their twenties, 26.5% in their thirties, 25.0% in their forties, 11.1% in their fifties, and 10.6% 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.

My place of work tries to avoid most of the wastes below, but one thing I notice in the office but not listed here is a bilingual poster that is in all the toilet cubicles that reads something like “Please close the toilet seat after use. This saves 15 grammes of CO₂ per day.” 15 grammes of CO₂ is a bit difficult to picture, but apparently is about the same as boiling a kettle, according to Google. Talking of saving electricity, and related to number 4, here is a snap from Flickr, although from a train rather than an office:

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