世論 What Japan Thinks

With the date for the 12,000 yen handout to all residents of Japan getting closer (perhaps…), here’s a short look at opinions on the cash handout in a survey conducted by goo Research in conjunction with the Mainichi Shimbun.

Demographics

Betwen the 23rd and 25th of January 2009 1,056 members of the goo Research monitor panel aged 20 or older completed a private internet-based questionnaire. No further demographic information was given.

This whole cash handout business has been nothing but a farce since it was first announced. Originally it was going to be a tax cut, but that does not benefit non-taxpayers, so it became free money. However, some of the issues that have come up are the method of distribution – currently it is envisaged that everyone has to go to their local city office, but that means cities need to employ lots of extra staff, and it’s been estimated that another 25% or so overhead is needed to get it distributed. Then the Prime Minister himself first said he wouldn’t take it, then he was saying he hadn’t ruled out that he would, then he would, and I think the latest situation is that he is undecided again.

One of the blogs I regularly read on Japanese politics talked about this in detail; a representative article on this matter from GlobalTalk 21 is here.
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Following up on yesterday’s broken digital cameras, today we look with goo Research again, reported on by japan.internet.com, into hard disk faults.

Demographics

Over the 27th and 28th of January 2009 1,092 members of the goo Research online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.7% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.7% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, 15.3% in their fifties, and 12.3% aged sixty or older.

I had a hard disk crash a few years ago and lost perhaps 20% of my photo collection. I now use Vista’s built-in backup tool to do weekly backups, but I’m not convinced at all that it is backing up everything it should be, and it has a funny habit of spewing out errors on boot-up on days it isn’t running. Can anyone recommend a cheap or free backup to DVD software package for Vista?
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Here’s one of these subjects for a survey that make me scratch my head and wonder why they really asked this. This time japan.internet.com reported on a survey by goo Research into broken digital cameras.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 27th of January 2009 1,083 members of the goo Research online monitor pool completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.1% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

As all I have is a cheap and cheerful compact digitial camera I’ve never thought that it might have the facility for a firmware upgrade; given the rate of model turnover buying a new camera is the only way of getting a new version! I’ve of course heard about upgrades for digital SLRs, but let me check the support web site for my camera – oh, they do have firmware upgrades even for the compact cameras! It doesn’t tell you what they do, however…
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Well, given the sample internet population that replied to this questionnaire that headline is true, as revealed by a recent survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into internet auctions.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 7th of January 2009 1,027 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

I’ve never participated in an internet auction, as the worry about getting ripped-off outweighs any financial benefit that I feel I would gain from using it.

If you want to take part in a Japanese auction but live overseas, one easy way is through a Japan-based representative, with Rinku being one well-known example.
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This rather fun survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, looked at mobile phones, with the focus of the article being phones and bedtime.

Demographics

Over the 18th and 19th of December 2008 1,082 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.2% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 16.0% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

Remember that a previous survey has shown that over two in five use their mobiles as alarm clocks, so that will affect where people put their mobile phones.

My phone sits on a desk in another room, but my wife’s on a desk out of reach in the bedroom as she does use it as an alarm clock.
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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

This extremely detailed survey from goo Research in conjunction with the NTT DATA Institute of Management Consulting, Inc looked at old people and computer and internet usage, and comparing these habits with that of younger people.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 16th of September 2008 1,064 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 67.5% of the sample were male, 0.9% in their teens, 7.0% in their twenties, 17.4% in their thirties, 12.5% in their forties, 6.0% in their fifties, and 56.1% aged sixty or older. Note that everyone in the sample had access to a computer and has signed up to goo Research as a monitor, so please be aware of that before extrapolating the behaviour observed here to the general population of Japan.

In Q13, I hope the tiny percentage applying security patches excludes those getting pushed Windows updates automatically, and similarly I hope there are a lot of people unaware that their Windows firewall is on. I also wonder what the overlap between those with local anti-virus and those with their service provider’s virus scanning is. Most providers offer the scanning only as a premium service, even though solutions like AVG anti-virus will do everything for free.

In Q16 it is entertaining to see that the only things old folk do on line more than their juniors is share trading, dating, and Second Life!
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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

This extremely detailed survey from goo Research in conjunction with the NTT DATA Institute of Management Consulting, Inc looked at old people and computer and internet usage, and comparing these habits with that of younger people.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 16th of September 2008 1,064 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 67.5% of the sample were male, 0.9% in their teens, 7.0% in their twenties, 17.4% in their thirties, 12.5% in their forties, 6.0% in their fifties, and 56.1% aged sixty or older. Note that everyone in the sample had access to a computer and has signed up to goo Research as a monitor, so please be aware of that before extrapolating the behaviour observed here to the general population of Japan.

In Q10 I an very surprised to see the majority of people use a spreadsheet on their home computer, and I wish I knew what sorts of uses they put it to. However, having observed at work how we get everything from databases to memos (yes, our middle-manager meeting minutes come delivered every week as a huge text box drawn in the middle of an otherwise blank spreadsheet) get delivered in Excel I cannot begin to guess what they are doing. The other surprising thing about the figure is that that many have Office installed; I’ve not seen any surveys that suggest anything other than a Microsoft monopoly at work, so why not at home too? Open Office or other free alternatives do not have the penetration in Japan.
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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

This extremely detailed survey from goo Research in conjunction with the NTT DATA Institute of Management Consulting, Inc looked at old people and computer and internet usage, and comparing these habits with that of younger people.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 16th of September 2008 1,064 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 67.5% of the sample were male, 0.9% in their teens, 7.0% in their twenties, 17.4% in their thirties, 12.5% in their forties, 6.0% in their fifties, and 56.1% aged sixty or older. Note that everyone in the sample had access to a computer and has signed up to goo Research as a monitor, so please be aware of that before extrapolating the behaviour observed here to the general population of Japan.

The literacy levels here are high, but as cautioned above one is dealing with a more computer-aware population.

Q2 is curious in that people want most to learn how to install new hardware. It would be interesting to find out if it’s for the curiousity value of opening the box and poking around, in order to save expensive upgrade fees from a third party, or to just connect a new printer or camera without requiring an on-site visit.

Q4, Q5 and Q6 show a very distinct and interesting split between the sexes.
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I don’t really know what to make of the headline, but it was an interesting result that came out of a recent survey by goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into internet advertising, the second regular monthly survey into this topic.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 25th of December 2008 1,082 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.1% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 17.8% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, and 28,2% aged fifty or older.

Comparing Q2 with the results of the first regular internet advertising survey, I see that contextual search ads are perceived as marginally more useful than contextual contents ads, which is interesting. In addition, it appears people are more aware of contextual search ads according to the last survey compared to content-based contextual ads in this survey.
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With now just over two and half years until the analogue switch-off in Japan, this recent survey from goo Research and reported by japan.internet.com into digital terrestrial television broadcasts (the fourth regular survey) shows usage almost reaching the half-way mark.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 12th of December 2008 1,083 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.0% of the sample were male, 16.2% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.0% in their thirties, 16.7% in their forties, and 28.1% aged fifty or older.

Compared with last month’s survey,　viewing rates are up 2.5% percentage points. If we subtract the 11 people who don’t have televisions, digital (excluding one seg or digital satellite and cable, etc) is now past 50% of viewers.

In Q2, the restrictions discussed are called Dubbing 10, a system that allows up to 10 copies to be made from one recording, but the copies themselves may not be recopied. All broadcasts have such a restriction by default.

For Q3, here is some background on the B-CAS Card issue.
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