世論 What Japan Thinks

Here’s perhaps a rather ordinary survey on terrestrial digital broadcasting from goo Research, their seventh time of conducting this monthly survey, as reported by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 4th and 9th of April 2009 1,087 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.6% were in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.1% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 15.5% in their fifties, and 12.3% aged sixty or older.

In order to try to spice up this survey just today there was a very interesting development regarding the government’s “image character”, Mr Tsuyoshi Kusunagi of the popular beat combo The Smaps, who appears on their advertising promoting, to use the common Japanese abbreviation for terrestrial digital, “chi-deji”. He was arrested in the early hours of the morning chin-deta – a corny pun that I will make no effort to explain – looking for digital adjustments to his antenna, if the rumours about him and the park are to be believed. The government, and just about every other organisation that he advertises for are now busy ripping up their contracts with him, although permit me to offer the above police mugshot as an alternative. (Yes, I know I suck at Photoshop!)

Leaving the gossip behind, let’s get back to the business on hand, the survey.
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This was quite a surprising result for me, to see how newcomers into the digital camera market, Panasonic and Sony, were becoming forces to be reckoned with, according to the results of this survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 3rd and 7th of April 2009 1,085 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.6% of the sample were male, 15.6% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.4% in their forties, 15.8% in their fifties, and 12.6% aged sixty or older.

There’s a lot of good photography in Japan blogs appearing now – two of my favourites are Tokyo Times and i, cjw.

Hmm, a post about cameras without a photograph…
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Sometimes I wonder why I persist with AdSense as the revenue has dropped quite noticeably over the last two years – if everything had stayed the way it was then, I’d be making over triple what I’m getting now, which itself is almost half what I was making at the peak. However, this survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com is looking at contextual advertising in blog and news columns from the consumer point of view.

Demographics

Between the 16th and 19th of March 2009 1,085 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.3% of the sample were male, 16.6% in their teens, 17.9% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.5% in their forties, and 27.6% agerd fifty or older.

Strangely enough, I do actually like to see a few contextual advertisements in blogs and the like; it does feel a bit lonely running an ad blocker all the time!

Note that the 30% who haven’t seen contextual advertisement does not mean that about one in three is running an advertisement blocker; there has to be another reason that I would like to see investigated some time.
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It’s difficult trying to work out the meaning from the results of a questionnaire into Japanese people’s understanding of English computer-related technical terms, so I’ll just present the results of a survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into computers.

Demographics

Between the 19th and 23rd of March 2009 1,062 members of the goo Research monitors completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.5% of the sample were male, 17.1% in their teens, 18.8% in their twenties, 19.3% in their thirties, 16.5% in their forties, 15.9% in their fifties, and 12.3% aged sixty or older.

That definition of UMPC is not really what I thought. I wouldn’t have said it had to be a tablet, but a thumb-driven keyboard and looking like a seriously-shrunk laptop with built-in mobile phone, with the WILLCOM L4 being the prime example that springs to mind. Incidentally, I’ve played with that beast and it seems to be trying to run Vista in far too little RAM, as even after ten minutes it was still busy whirring the disk trying to start up! I gave up on it at that point.

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As I am currently suffering from a really badly-running nose, to such an extent that I’m in danger of dropping nose-water, to directly translate the Japanese term, on my keyboard, this recent survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into hayfever is most timely for me.

Demographics

Between the 26th and 31st of March 2009 1,062 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.5% of the sample were male, 17.0% in their teens, 17.6% in their twenties, 21.1% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 12.4% aged sixty or older.

In Q1SQ1 and Q1SQ2 there is the implication, I believe, that the medicines taken are over-the-counter drugs (and quackery), with prescribed cures falling under the “attending hospital” answer.

Any mistakes you find in this entry I blame on the hayfever!
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With the majority of Japanese now carrying credit card form factor contactless IC chip-based RFID electronic cash, this recent survey from goo Research reported on by japan.internet.com into electronic cash (their eighth regular survey into the topic) gave some clues as to how people use them.

Demographics

Between the 24th and 27th of March 2009 1,093 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 15.9% in their forties, and 27.6% aged fifty or older.

I get the headline from looking at Q1SQ1 and Q1SQ2 together. The most common use for cards is for public transportation, yet the majority spend under 3,000 yen a month, which suggests just very occasional payment for train usage. However, pre-paid season tickets with electronic money functions are the norm for many commuters, and as 3,000 yen would barely cover even the cheapest season ticket, I can only conclude that people are not counting the cost of their season ticket within their monthly spend. Indeed, I would have liked to have seen the survey differentiate between season tickets and pay-as-you-go usage on public transport.
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Here’s an interesting survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com looking at computer usage of mobile phone users, the fourth in the series of regular surveys.

Demographics

Between the 16th and 19th of February 2008 1,067 members of the goo Research mobile monitor group completed a mobile phone internet-based questionnaire. 57.5% of the sample were female, 3.9% in their teens, 29.2% in their twenties, 40.2% in their thirties, 21.4% in their forties, and 5.2% aged fifty or older. Note that one way that they recruit their mobile monitors is by getting them to enter their mobile phone email address when they apply to be a PC monitor, so bear that in mind while reading the results.

My mobile web use is limited to the occassional dictionary lookup and downloading of animated email icons, for reasons of it being too expensive, too slow, and too restrictive.

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This survey has perhaps a rather narrow sample, but it is the early 20s women who are the trend leaders (or the first to adapt trends promoted by industry, depending on how cynical you want to be) so this recent survey sponsored by JIDPO (Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization) and conducted by goo Research into design reveals a number of interesting numbers.

Demographics

Between the 1st and 5th of December 2008 1,102 women from the goo Research monitor group aged between 20 and 26 answered an online private questionnaire. 33.2% of the sample resided in the Tokyo area, 33.6% in the Osaka area, and 33.2% in the Nagoya area. 9.9% of the sample were aged 20, 14.0% aged 21, 17.2% aged 22, 16.4% aged 23, 20.1% aged 24, 21.8% aged 25, and 0.6% aged 26.

Not surprisingly Apple feature prominently, but note that in Q1 there are six or less iPhone owners who rate their device (cross reference the data with Q3), versus 125 iPod owners, yet in Q2 the iPhone is the second-most appreciated device that people do not own. Both the SoftBank CEO and I know the reason for that.

I am surprised, however, by Sharp’s mobiles being high on the list. Their AQUOS mobile phone ball joint is an impressive piece of industrial design, but the overall phone is a bit ordinary, I feel. My personal favourite mobile phone from a design point of view is the NEC N703iD credit-card themed one.

Oh, and my wife has modelled wedding dresses for the Yumi Katsura in Q8.
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With many mobile phones both here in Japan and abroad sprouting touch panels and full keyboards, this recent survey by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into mobile phone input facilities revealed a few interesting statistics about them.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 17th of February 2009 1,074 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.2% of the sample were male, 15.5% in their teens, 17.9% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 16.6% in their forties, 15.9% in their fifties, and 12.4% in their sixties.

The survey also investigated voice input, but it is just the simple pattern matching for speed dial, I believe, a feature standard on many phones. I believe the next big feature for Japanese phones will be the dictation of email messages, but I also believe it won’t work very well and will not find any significant mainstream use.

If I had the money, I’d really love to upgrade to the Sharp S004, featuring all three of the features asked about here, a full keyboard, a touch panel, and an accelerometer.
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Looking at my recent statistics, everyone seems pretty much ad-blind on WJT, so looking at this recent survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into internet advertising, their third regular survey on this subject, it looks like I need to get more goo monitors visiting my site!

Demographics

Between the 2nd and 5th of February 2009 1,092 members of the goo Research 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, 21.4% in their thirties, 15.9% in their forties, and 28.0% aged fifty or older.

I think one can infer that the 15.3% in Q1SQ1 who find advertisements useful includes most if not all of the 14.3% in Q1SQ2 who purchased items as the result of a click. Although one in seven have made a purchase through a search click, there is no information to the total number of clicks to total number of purchases. In addition, not all clicks are through to purchases; indeed I’ve just blocked one advertiser who is promoting their site that contains nothing but stolen content (in fact, twice-stolen, most likely), which I thought was against the Google AdWords rules.
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