世論 What Japan Thinks

With most of the usual survey publishers out of action or on reduced output thanks to the earthquake and related events, I’m having to translate some surveys I would usually just skip over, so my apologies in advance if you don’t find this survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into computer use of mobile phone users too interesting. This is the 25th time they have conducted this survey, and although I have used the direct translation of the title, it should really be called “computer use of goo Research computer-based monitors who also signed up as mobile phone monitors and are answering a survey delivered to their mobile phones”. If you understand that, you might even understand the story title too!

Demographics

Between the 25th and 27th of February 2011 1,081 mobile phone-owning members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 65.1% of the sample were female, 6.8% in their teens, 36.0% in their twenties, 34.4% in their thirties, 16.4% in their forties, and 6.5% aged fifty or older.

You’ll also note that the demographics are quite different from the usual computer-based goo Research; almost two-thirds female here versus a slight male majority for computer-based.
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This time it is goo Research taking a look at an interesting facet of Japanese life, in this report by japan.internet.com into cabling and wiring.

Demographics

Between the 4th and 9th of March 2011 1,088 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.9% in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 15.7% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

I haven’t a clue why over half the sample have modems; perhaps people are counting their ADSL adapters as both routers and modems? Only 45.0% having a PC monitor is a bit confusing, as another survey this month indicated that 58.5% had desktop computers – do the remaining 13.5% either have an all-in-one computer or are they feeding the output through their television?
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I promise tomorrow I will have an earthquake-related survey, but for today you’ll just have to make do with goo Research looking at faxes, as reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 4th and 8th of March 2011 1,010 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 17.8% in their teens, 17.7% in their twenties, 19.7% in their thirties, 13.8% in their forties, 16.9% in their fifties, and 13.1% aged sixty or older.

I also think faxes will survive; the transmission method might change from standard telephone to an internet-based protocol, but I don’t think the ability to be able to move a bit of paper from one location to another is going to go away, certainly not in the domestic sphere.
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Sitting around the house feeling miserable about the earthquake, tsunami and radiation leaks is not very productive, so I’ll try to get back into the swing of things with a survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into home appliances, their eighth in a regular series of such surveys.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 25th of February 2011 1,066 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were male, 16.0% in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 11.9% aged sixty or older.

The question about a home bakery refers in part to the famous hit product from last year, Sanyo’s SPM-RB1000, or the GOPAN, a bread maker that uses rice, and will even mill the rice into flour before starting cooking. Panasonic’s range of conventional bread makers are supposed to be pretty good too.

Also note that I translated the third in the series last January and the seventh last November.
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I have tried a few times listening to the radio in Japan, but I have never found it a rewarding experience. However, this recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into this topic found that just overhalf the population were listeners.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 26th of February 2011 1,097 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.0% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.5% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 11.9% aged sixty or older.

I’ve not tried internet radio; I left the UK just before it really took off, so never got into the habit of listening to it. Back at home I always woke up to serious breakfast news radio (I never really enjoyed music radio), but now nothing more than an alarm clock gets me up in the morning, and over breakfast the television is easier.
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A recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into mobile phones but focusing on camera features in this report, found that cameras were now ubiquitous on mobile phones.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 18th of February 2011 1,074 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.7% in their teens, 17.9% in their twenties, 21.1% in their thirties, 16.6% in their forties, 15.5% in their fifties, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.

Currently the makers are fighting a megapixel war in Japan, in both traditional feature phones and smartphones. For feature phones, Panasonic have their 13 megapixel Lumix phone, LG their ugly as sin jobby-brown 12 megapixel effort, and Sony-Ericsson the stupidly over-specced 16 megapixels; for smartphones, Toshiba’s Android-based 12 megapixel camera.
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Well, at least according to the latest survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, their 18th survey into digital terrestrial television broadcasts.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 17th of February 2011 1,089 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 15.8% in their forties, 16.3% in their fifties, and 11.9% aged sixty or older.

I’d be a bit wary of the figures being representative of the whole population, as the survey is for people who have home computers; I hear that a lot of retired people are still not ready yet, and considering that there has been very little advertising for set-top boxes versus a whole new television, I’m sure there’s a lot who don’t know what to do. Personally, I think the government should give out vouchers for set-top boxes with pension payments; this can be paid for by getting rid of the “digital ambassadors” they have – six high-end stars who I’m pretty sure are getting sufficiently fat wads for their appearances.

By the way, the switch-off date is 24th of July 2011!
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The company MMRI in conjuction with goo Research recently released the results of their third ranking consumer awareness survey into corporations with the image of commitment to environmental measures.

Demographics

Between the 28th of January and 1st of February 2011 1,094 members of the goo Research oonline monitor group completd a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.1% of the sample were female, 20.1% between 18 and 29 years old, 20.1% in their thirties, 19.7% in their forties, 19.9% in their fifties, and 20.1% aged sixty or older.

Note that this survey is more a measure of how well companies are projecting their green image, not of how well they are actually enacting policy; my employer features high on the list and … no, I’d better not say!

You’ll notice Japan Tobacco in 11th place overall, which might seem strange, but JT are very clever with their advertising and have persuaded the average person on the street that being downwind of a smoke cloud, accidentally poking kids with ciggies on busy roads, and chucking butts down the drain are the most serious hazards of smoking, thus their awareness campaign plays on the greenness of not doing the above. Japan must be just about the only country in the world where more local governments have enacted measures against smoking on busy streets versus the much more unhealthy aspect of smoking in enclosed spaces.

Finally, note that in the second ranking Apple makes an appearance as the only foreign company in either list.
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goo Research recently took a look at online language study services. The results of this survey were reported by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 3rd and 5th of February 2011 1,088 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, 17.5% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.5% in their forties, 15.4% in their fifties, and 12.3% aged sixty or older.

I must at this point mention my online pal Koichi at Tofugu and TextFugu, where he runs a Japanese-language study course. It’s not free, and although I’ve never used it it does seem to be very highly rated, and he even offers a 110% moneyback guarantee!
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This survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com was the 24th regular monthly survey into mobile phone users’ computer use.

Demographics

Between the 7th and 13th of February 2011 exactly 1,000 mobile phone using members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private mobile phone internet-based questionnaire. 54.1% of the sample were male, 3.3% in their teens, 22.7% in their twenties, 40.1% in their thirties, 25.3% in their forties, and 8.6% aged fifty or older. Note that all monitor members have to be computer users to sign up, so by implication all 1,000 users should also have computers.

I’m translating this mail right now thanks to a mobile phone email from Mister Donut, which contained a 20% off coupon for a very nice crunchy chocolate Pon De Ring and enough coffee to get me to the end of this translation.

I am on about two other mobile phone mailing lists – one for my mobile phone shop (once a month and I delete it immediately) and one from my mobile phone provider’s credit card company, which I don’t think I’m allowed to unsubscribe from!
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