世論 What Japan Thinks

A recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, looked at libraries and the internet. Note that the questions here are focusing on a public web site for the library, rather than internet terminals available within the library.

Demographics

Between the 27th and 29th of October 2010 1,068 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, 18.3% in their twenties, 020.6% in their thirties, 16.5% in their forties, 16.0% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

I’m not sure what sort of ebook or music distribution facilities are available on public-facing library sites – my local library has none of that new-fangled nonsense, just searching and reserving books.

Oh, and don’t ask me why the answers to Q1 were rounded to zero decimal places but SQ1 and SQ1 were rounded to one decimal place.
Read the rest of this entry »

This recent survey from goo Research into satisfaction with life overseas found satisfaction levels far higher than my stereotypes of Japanese abroad would suggest.

Demographics

Between the 26th and 28th of May 2010 892 people randomly selected from the members of the goo Research online monitor group who had had experience of living abroad completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 64.8% of the sample were female, 1.9% in their teens, 30.3% in their twenties, 34.3% in their thirties, 21.4% in their forties, 8.3% in their fifties, 3.4% in their sixties, and 0.4% aged seventy or older. However, what constituted living abroad, specifically a minimum time span, was not mentioned.

In Q1, I can understand people being satisfied at getting a larger home than their Japanese dwelling, especially those living abroad on the company’s dime. The overall conveniences perhaps raises an eyebrow, but a majority being satisfied with the food is a surprise. Conversely, 37.7% being uncommital regarding their relationships with their neighbours suggests that people didn’t mix that much.
Read the rest of this entry »

The seventh regular survey by goo Research into home electrical appliances, reported on by japan.internet.com, revealed surprising statistics regarding which appliances are likely to lead to warranty claims.

Demographics

Between the 28th of October and the 2nd of November 2010 1,034 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.3% of the sample were male, 16.2% in their teens, 18.0% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 16.2% in their fifties, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.

This survey backs up the results from last week’s look at digital TV preparations that showed that digital televisions have overtaken analogue as the analogue switch-off nears. However, I’m not sure what the seven people from Q2 are doing buying an analogue television within the last month!

Also note that I translated the third in the series in January.
Read the rest of this entry »

A recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, looked at electronic books.

Demographics

Between the 26th of October and the 1st of November 2010 1,097 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.6% of the sample were male, 16.6% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 16.4% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 11.9% aged sixty or older.

Manga comics are probably ideally suited to being digitised – with them only taking an hour or two to read, the amount of effort required to buy and store electronic versions is far less than that for paper versions, I would imagine.
Read the rest of this entry »

With only just over eight months before the analogue switch-off, and more importantly with the eco point digital TV cashback to be halved at the end of the month, the 16th regular survey by goo Research into terrestrial digital television broadcasts, reported on by japan.internet.com, found that finally the number of people digital-ready surpassed analogue equipment owners – see the 15th regular survey for the previous data.

Demographics

On the 25th of October 2010 1,093 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private intenet-based questionnaire. 52.2% of the sample were male, 16.7% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 22.0% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 16.0% in their fifties, and 11.2% aged sixty or older.

Talking of the halving of eco points, I really, really have to buy two tellies, one for the in-laws, and one for ourselves. For a 32 inch, the eco point cashback is dropping from 12,000 yen to 6,000 yen, so we have to be quick…

I also heard at the weekend when the cable company came round for their regular check-up of our reception that the government are very likely to request that all cable companies continue to supply an analogue feed after the switch-off.
Read the rest of this entry »

The title indicates a perhaps not too surprising result from a recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into 3D contents.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 26th of October 2010 1,067 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.4% of the sample were male, 16.6% in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 20.3% in their thirties, 16.6% in their forties, 16.1% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

Last month Toshiba announced that they would be releasing a no-glasses 3D television at the end of the year, and just this week Sharp made a similar announcement. However, the current state of the art is that only up to about a 20 inch television works, and there is only a relatively narrow sweet spot for getting the 3D effect. However, their strategy may be less promoting their new hardware and more trying to cast doubt in the consumer’s mind about the merits of with-glasses 3D, an area where both companies are losing out badly to their Japanese and Korean rivals.
Read the rest of this entry »

A recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, looked at mobile video, their 65th survey in their regular mobile research series.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 21st of October 2010, 1,036 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a mobile internet-based questionnaire, thus everyone was a mobile user. 57.6% of the sample were female, 3.6% in their teens, 25.8% in their twenties, 35.2% in their thirties, 25.6% in their forties, and 9.8% aged fifty or older.

My mobile phone is capable of movie playback, but I don’t believe I’ve ever watched any video, not even playback of video shot with the mobile’s camera.
Read the rest of this entry »

A recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into internet donations found a higher than I expected figure of people who have donated to charity over the internet.

Demographics

Between the 8th and 13th of October 2010 1,051 members of the goo Research online monitor group copleted a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.5% of the sample were male, 16.6% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.4% in their forties, 15.5% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

I’ve never donated anything over the internet, either in Japan or overseas.
Read the rest of this entry »

A story this summer that started off as a tragedy when a family were found to have had their ’111 year old’ father’s bones lying around the house and turned into farce later when a 200 year old man turned up was lost old folk in Japan, the subject of a not-so-recent survey from goo Research, conducted on behalf of the Mainichi Shimbun.

Demographics

Between the 27th and 29th of August 2010 1,071 members of the goo Research online monitor group aged twenty or older completed a private internet-based questionnaire. No further demographic information was given.

I’m sure the Mainichi Shimbun must have published a fuller version of this survey.

The story had two components – first, people dying but their families not notifying anyone so that they could collect the pensions or just their general incompetence with the system for registering deaths; that is a serious social problem that needs to be addressed. Second, local governments for whatever reason not tidying up their internal paperwork, so that when people went missing such as at wartime or when they died or moved but the proper procedures were not followed, orphaned resident register entries were created but these records were never looked at until the first story broke, thus producing the flood of ancient phantoms.
Read the rest of this entry »

japan.internet.com recently reported on goo Research’s 21st regular survey into mobile phone users’ use of computers.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 14th of October 2010 1,042 members of the goo Research online monitor group who had also subscribed as mobile phone users completed a private mobile phone-based questionnaire. 55.0% of the sample were female, 2.9% in their teens, 25.8% in their twenties, 36.9% in their thirties, 26.2% in their forties, and 8.3% aged fifty or older.

There’s actually not much exciting about these results, I think, but here you go anyway.

Note that the goo Research monitor group initially signs up everyone as a computer-based user, then they can elect to further complete mobile phone surveys too, thus there would be a tendency for the sample to consist of computer-centric people, so the results as difficult to extrapolate
Read the rest of this entry »