世論 What Japan Thinks

Another regular survey today from goo Research, this time being the 10th electronic cash survey, as reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 1st and 4th of June 2009 1,106 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.2% of the sample were male, 16.6% in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, and 27.5% aged fifty or older.

The only electronic cash I use is at the work canteen and shop, which isn’t really electronic cash, I would argue; it uses the corporate credit card and gets charged through to my credit card just like a normal transaction – electronic cash to me has a rechargeable sum of cash stored in the card that gets subtracted from as you use. However, I don’t think this survey made such a subtle distinction.

Note that the survey concentrates on chipped credit cards, not mobile phones with the same chips.
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Here is the latest set of results from goo Research’s regular monthly survey into internet advertising, their sixth in the series, reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 25th and 28th of May 2009 1,089 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.5% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, and 27.9% aged fifty or older.

I was disappointed to see (but not surprised looking at my revenue!) that links such as me urging you to buy crappy keitai straps from Japan don’t seem to find much favour with Japanese, but email newsletters being even further down the pecking order seemed a surprise, and I’m not really sure why contextual ads come dead last.
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With the recent introduction of the Eco Points system of awards for buying environmentally-friendly products (although there’s still no system for spending said points), this recent survey conducted by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into said Eco Points system found that digital terrestrial-ready televisions were the most popular electronics that fall under the system’s umbrella.

Demographics

Between the 20th and 22nd of May 2009 1,088 members of the goo Monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.6% in their teens, 18.0% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 15.8% and their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

If you wish to take advantage of the system yourself, you need to keep both the shop receipt and the guarantee that usually comes in a green envelope. In addition, if you wish to take advantage of bonus points for getting your old items recycled, also keep the recycling receipt. You then take them all along to the appropiate desk at your local city hall (I think) to get credited the points, then wait until the rewards are decided. I saw on a program last week that they are thinking of offering regional delicacies and other over-priced tat.
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This month’s regular look at mobile phone upgrade needs (the 46th time it has been conducted) by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com had interesting results regarding two big recent developments in mobile phones, smartphones and high pixel-count cameras.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 22nd of May 2009 exactly 1,000 mobile phone-using members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private intenet-based questionnaire. 52.5% of the sample were female, 2.0% in their teens, 16.7% in their twenties, 33.7% in their thirties, 28.4% in their forties, and 19.2% aged fifty or older.

This summer’s models brings cameras with up to 10 million pixels, which is getting to be overkill, as packing more pixels more densely actually can give worse results as one starts to get interference problems. In addition, without a decent lens you’re not going to be taking very good photographs anyway, and looking at the camera on the linked web page, the big round thing looks just for show as there is another tiny circle inside which looks to be the business end.

The number interested in smartphones is pretty low, but I suspect that they have an image of being foreign market-designed phones that feature few of the essential Japanese functions such as emoji, One-seg television, and smartcards. Up to now only Sharp with their SH-04 and related models have produced that sort of smartphone, but with many domestic manufacturers rushing to Google’s Android, expect to see many fully-functioned domestic smartphones this winter or next spring, assuming the carriers don’t request to the manufacturers that they avoid too much openness.
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Recently goo Research conducted a survey into mobile phone users use of computers, with this report from japan.internet.com concentrating on email newsletters, or “Mail Magazines” as they are known as in Japanese English. This was the sixth time they’ve conducted this regular monthly survey, but the first time I’ve translated any from the series.

Demographics

Between the 11th and 13th of May 2009 1,066 mobile phone-using members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private mobile phone-based questionnaire. 55.9% of the sample were female, 2.7% were in their teens, 26.7% in their twenties, 40.4% in their thirties, 24.2% in their forties, and 5.9% aged fifty or older.

Looking at the results, and trying to remember when I applied to be a goo Monitor, I believe that you must first apply to be a computer-based monitor, then add your mobile phone email account, so everyone in the survey should have access to a computer.

I get just the one newsletter on my mobile phone, which I really should cancel (in fact, I’ve just cancelled right now), but get too many on my PC, including one from DHC (a cosmetics company) thanks to my wife signing up with my address, who send me a mail every day, but although they include an unsubscribe link, you have to log into your account to confirm it, but my wife’s forgotton the password.
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This recent survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into mobile spam found that about one in four Japanese are getting multiple mobile spams per day.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 26th of April 2009 1,061 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.3% of the sample were male, 16.2% in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 16.5% in their forties, 15.4% in their fifties, and 11.9% aged sixty or older.

I think I once got a mobile phone spam long, long ago, but as I rarely venture away from reputable company sites on my mobile, I don’t expose myself to any significant risks. How about you?

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One very useful number came out of this recent survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into internet advertising, their fifth regular survey on this subject, how often advertisements in search results catch people’s eyes. You may use the third regular survey as a cross-reference.

Demographics

Between the 20th and 23rd of April 2009 1,071 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.1% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, and 27.7% aged fifty or older.

I think Q1SQ2 is a bit of a confusing result – only 14.8% of adverisement clickers have purchased items, but not all advertisements are selling things, and even advertisements that are are often not directly selling.

I never see search ads, and it’s blocked over 400,000 advertisements in the nine months I’ve had it.
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Once again we have the results of the regular monthly surveys from goo Research and as reported by japan.internet.com into mobile phone upgrade needs, with this being the 45th time around.

Demographics

Between the 13th and 17th of April 2009 exactly 1,000 mobile phone users from the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.7% of the sample were female, 1.1% in their teens, 19.1% in their twenties, 37.2% in their thirties, 24.2% in their forties, and 18.4% aged fifty or older.

As a comparison, the fortieth regular survey, translated here, also looked at what was important when choosing what to upgrade to. There design was the key feature, but now it is price, suggesting that the current financial uncertainties are weighing heavy in potential upgraders’ minds.
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Japan does have the image of being a very law-abiding country, and this survey conducted by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into portable audio players does reinforce that stereotype.

Demographics

Between the 16th and 20th of April 2009 1,056 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.8% in their twenties, 20.9% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties,15.6% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

First of all, let me say that I am not clear on the finer details of Japanese copyright law, but in Q1SQ2 one might claim that copying from CD may be illegal, but assuming given the number of music rental shops that people copy from rented CDs, I believe the law does allow one to make copies, although I did read that it is supposed to be a degraded copy, so ripping to MP3 might be OK. Second of all, downloading other people’s illegally uploaded music is not illegal; it is only the uploading that falls foul of the law, although than might or might not change soon.
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PLC, or Power Line Communication, is basically a home networking scheme that allows one to use the standard mains cabling for networking computers. One needs a separate link to the outside world, of course, via ASDL or whatever, but otherwise just a pair of compact plug adapters will get you networked. PLC was the highlighted topic for this story on japan.internet.com based on a survey from goo Research into computers.

Demographics

Between the 9th and 12th of April 2009 1,089 members of the goo Research monitor team completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.3% were male, 16.6% in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 21.0% in their thirties, 16.6% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties and 11.8% aged sixty or older.

If I had a home without built-in ethernet, I’d probably choose PLC over wireless, as there are no worries about freeloaders or other security issues associated with WiFi and the speed is in theory higher, although on the other hand I’ve heard that the main problem with PLC is power spikes inferfering with connections whenever household electrical items turn on and off, and of course if you have an old building with dodgy wiring there’s going to be problems.
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