世論 What Japan Thinks

japan.internet.com recently reported on goo Research’s second regular survey into web site viewing, specifically comparing computer versus mobile phone (including smartphone) browsing habits.

Demographics

Between the 28th and 30th of November 2011 1,092 members of the goo Research mobile monitor group complete a private mobile (including smartphone) internet-based questionnaire. 58.2% of the survey were female, 3.3% in their teens, 22.8% in their twenties, 37.1% in their thirties, 26.0% in their thirties, and 10.8% aged fifty or older.

I’ve now finally joined the odern age and got my smartphone, a dinky wee P-01D job. However, I don’t have an unlimited packet deal, and as one of the reasons I signed up was to get access to my carrier’s wifi system, any mobile browsing will tend to be done on my netbook, not smartphone. Anyway, it also supports tethering, so if I do go unlimited, it will be spending a lot of time acting as a hot spot for my real computer.

Note that tablet computers were not asked about – it doesn’t say if they were specifically excluded, but the impression I get from the text is that they were. However, the article does mention that it would be good to start explicitly asking about tablet habits too, as they combine many of the good points of both smartphones and computers.
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The second regular survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into home electrical appliances was recently reported on.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 22nd of November 2011 1,070 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.1% of the sample were male, 16.8% in their teens, 17.6% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, and 28.2% aged fifty or older.

One noticable mover in the ownership stakes was Blu-ray player/recorders, with 40.5% of the sample now owning one. As most of the new models of hard disk-based recorders feature a Blu-ray recorder, an interesting follow-up survey might be to see how many people use it merely for back-up of their recorded stuff, how many rent or buy Blu-ray disks, and how many people just don’t use it at all.
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In the second regular survey by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into flash marketing (time-limited offers), one interesting feature was the growth in the market compared to the first survey three months earlier.

Demographics

Over the 15th and 16th of November 2011 1,092 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 15.9% in their forties, 15.9% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

Although awareness of these kinds of coupons has decreased by three percentage points, the purchasers has conversely increased by four.

Amongst those with more cynical views on Groupon there is often the mention of fish pedicure, which initially sounded to me like marginally less useful than fish bicycle rental, but I have since learnt the true meaning, and that they may be banned on hygiene grounds..
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With the digital switch-over finished (with a subsequent massive drop in demand for televisions, but that’s another story), this survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into terrestrial digital television had a look at how people were finding it.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 16th of November 2011 1,089 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.2% of the sample were male. 16.5% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, and 21.6% aged fifty or older.

I’m rather satisfied with the whole digital broadcast business. My favourite part is that pressing the data button on most channels gives a three-hourly breakdown of the weather for the next 24 hours in my town, no further fiddling required.
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A recent survey from goo Research into communication with school in times of disasters was conducted in conjunction with http://wdsd.net/, another company in the same NTT Resonant group as goo Research that provides mailing list services to schools for communicating with parents and guardians in times of disaster and other occasions.

Demographics

Between the 27th and 30th of October 2011 350 parents or guardians of middle school or high school children who lived in the Eastern or Northern areas of Japan (one of Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba, Saitama, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Gunma, Yamanashi, Nagano, Niigata, Aomori, Yamagata, Akita, Iwate, Miyagi, or Fukushima Prefectures) completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.0% of the sample were male, 8.0% in their thirties, 64.0% in their forties, 27.7% in their fifties, and 0.3% in their sixties.

Note that the areas surveyed were those that were affected the most by the March 11th earthquake, which is a focus of many of the questions below.
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A number of clinics these days offer services for making reservations online, a service I have availed myself of once or twice.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 17th of November 2011 1,081 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.5% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.5% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 15.8% in their forties, 15.9% in their fifties, and 11.7% aged sixty or older.

With ordinary clinics, the way reservations work is rather than reserving a time, one reserves a place in the queue, and the system will email you back once you get close to the head of the queue, so one can minimise the sitting around in the waiting room time. I’m surprised my regular skin clinic hasn’t adopted it, as they have a manual system which on weekends means that phoning in at about 9 am means one might get seen by 6 pm on a good day.
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A recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into online shopping showed that credit card was by far the most popular payment method.

Demographics

Between the 31st of October and the 4th of November 2011 1,086 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private mobile phone (including smartphone)-based questionnaire. 59.9% of the sample were female, 3.8% in their teens, 29.7% in their twenties, 34.5% in their thirties, 24.5% in their forties, and 7.6% aged fifty or older.

I’ve never shopped online from my mobile for all the three reasons listed in Q1SQ2, and other reasons would include that the services I buy from are all overseas, and they don’t work very well, if at all, on Japanese mobiles.
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Christmas is coming, and goo Research were first to get in on the act with their look at Christmas.

Demographics

Between the 20th and 25th of October 2011, 503 members of the goo Research monitor group residing within Tokyo city or the three surrounding prefectures of Chiba, Saitama or Kanagawa completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.9% of the sample were female, 33.8% in their twenties, 33.2% in their thirties, and 33.0% in their forties.

I hate all the Christmas present nonsense myself. I send my parents our company’s calendar every year, which is always a nice and easy purchase to make, then I agonise over what to get the wife, and it usually ends up as some cuddly toys.

Note that Christmas in Japan usually means Christmas Eve, and indeed that is how it should be read in the questions below.
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goo Reseach’s latest survey, reported on by japan.internet.com, was not on genetically-modified rodents, but instead on the computer kind of mouse.

Demographics

Over the 24th and 25th of October 2011 1,089 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.7% in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

I use both wired and wireless mice. I quite like the wireless one, but it’s just a little heavy, and the performance gets a bit dodgy as the batteries get a little lower.
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goo Research recently conducted an interesting survey, reported on by japan.internet.com, into geiger counters.

Demographics

Over the 24th and 25th of October 2011 1,089 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.5% of the sample were male, 16.9% in their teens, 17.9% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, 15.9% in their fifties, and 11.7% aged sixty or older.

I suppose if I was intellectually bankrupt and just wanted to get hits for this story by getting spread to the more excitable corners of the web, I should have entitled the story something like “Four in five Japanese will DIE of STUBBORNNESS”, and indeed I wouldn’t be too surprised if it gets picked up anyway and repackaged with a similar scary line. Anyway, I believe that geiger counters are actually relatively difficult to use accurately, and for perhaps the biggest source of (mostly unfounded) worry, foodstuffs, they are pretty much useless, but yet I hear that people in Tokyo supermarkets do wave them over the veggie stalls. I wonder how they react to bananas and Brazil nuts?
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