Perhaps I over-estimate the average Japanese consumer’s desire for value before reputation, but I found the results of this survey conducted by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into computers at home quite surprising.
Demographics
Between the 3rd and 8th of September 2008 1,001 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 3.0% of the sample were male, 12.7% in their teens, 22.1% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, and 27.7% aged fifty or older.
NEC, Fujitsu, Toshiba and Sony have TV tuners in most of their line-up, as well as integrated features for recording television shows to disk, so their desktops, usually equipped with wide-screens, can easily double as televisions in cramped Japanese homes.
In the notebook field, Panasonic come a very poor 10th with not even 3% of the home market, despite an earlier survey showing them to be the most popular business notebook. The price of them at retail is frightening, quite frankly, and they come with very few of the bells and whistles that are loaded (overloaded?) onto the other brands. Wondering out loud with absolutely no information to back this up, but given that they have recently released Viera-branded (their TV technology) mobile phones, I wonder if they’ll build a Viera notebook (or even desktop) to try to capture more of the home market?
Finally, despite the sub-notebook market being big in the West at least, and despite many shops selling an Asus Eee PC for just 100 yen if you take out a two-year subscription to the 3G mobile internet service from E-Mobile, Asus and Acer with their Aspire One barely register in sales or purchase intentions. Read the rest of this entry »
Most of the big chains of convenience stores have two kiosk-like machines in many of their stores; an ATM machine, and a general-purpose terminal for conducting various transactions. This recent survey from goo Research Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com looked at how people use convenience stores, with the report focusing on the use of these service kiosks.
Demographics
Between the 20th and 25th of August 2008 1,079 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.7% of the sample were male, 16.2% were in their teens, 17.5% in their twenties, 22.4% in their thirties, 17.0% in their forties, and 26.8% aged fifty or older.
Note that many Japanese net shopping sites, from the tiny stores at Rakuten all the way up to Amazon, allow payment at convenience stores. My wife has a Ticket Pia card, and even when booking through their own official ticket site she can get the option to pick up the tickets from a Family Mart store for no fee as an alternative to about 600 yen fee for registered post. When she picks up the tickets she can opt to pay by cash, but by inserting the card she gets priority seat choice, as they do not assign the seat when booking online (or by the phone), but instead when you pay. If you fail to turn up at the machine within three days you lose your booking. It does seem like a horribly complex and roundabout way of buying things and I wouldn’t be surprised if there is some sort of agreement between Ticket Pia and Family Mart whereby Family Mart pay Ticket Pia for sending a customer through their doors. Read the rest of this entry »
The 15th of August this year marked the 63rd anniversary of the surrender of Japan. To find out what young people think of war, goo Research, in conjunction with the Yomiuri newspaper performed a survey on this topic.
Demographics
Between the 23rd and 25th of July 2008 534 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed an internet-based questionnaire. The sample was mixed male and female, and ages between teens and those in their thirties. More detailed information is not given
Note that this report is just an excerpt of the full survey, thus some of the results raise more questions than they answer. Why do the majority of young Japanese not see peace lasting? Do they fear external sources like North Korea and China, or internal sources like terrorism – homegrown or imported – or a renouncement of Article Nine, the part of the constitution that forbids Japan from having an offensive army? Read the rest of this entry »
This is a very straightforward look at a quite straitforward subject, wristwatches. This survey was reported on japan.internet.com and conducted by goo Research.
Demographics
Between the 6th and 11th of August 2008 1,055 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.2% of the sample were male, 14.5% in their teens, 19.7% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, and 27.8% aged fifty or older.
I just got my watch battery replaced (1,000 yen from Yodobashi Camera, in case you’re wondering, but for some reason I had over 3,000 repair points on my card, so I got it for free) on my analogue-dialled stopwatch-adorned watch that I only wear at weekends, on the outside of my left wrist. Read the rest of this entry »
Between the 3rd and 5th of July 2008 1,039 married women from the goo Research online monitor panel successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 100% of the sample was female, of course, 33.3% in their twenties, 32.6% in their thirties, and 34.1% in their forties. 38.4% were full-time employees, 11.4% contract or dispatch staff, and 50.2% were full-time housewives. I don’t know why no part-timers or students were in the sample.
A recent story from the New York Times misrepresented the situation regarding energy consumption of heated toilets, but thinking about the situation more and seeing a couple of much more efficient European products, I realised the biggest domestic energy saving that can be made with little alteration to the average Japanese person’s lifestyle is to replace the hot water pot with some of the newer types of kettle.
I was going to post something describing the relative power consumptions, but it’s really difficult to get figures for kettles in sensible units – all I got was stuff like “If everyone boiled only the water they needed to make a cup of tea instead of filling the kettle every time, we could save enough electricity in a year to power the UK’s street lights for nearly 7 months. This is the equivalent of the electricity used by 300,000 households for a year or output of a typical power station for nearly 5 months.” If these figures weren’t incomprehensible enough, it said the above would save “enough CO2 to fill Big Ben tower more than 50,000 times.”
In the west, I hear that Bluetooth-based telephone number and email address exchange is the standard way. However, this recent survey conducted by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into mobile phone address books showed very different habits in Japan.
Demographics
Between the 30th of July and the 3rd of August 2008 1,001 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 11.3% in their teens, 23.5% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, and 27.7% aged fifty or older.
The main reason for Bluetooth not being used is that it is far from standard on mobile phones. I’ve looked before at Bluetooth in Japan, but why it has never taken off is a mystery to me, although the fact that infrared was already established as a standard on Japanese phones might have something to do with it.
I rarely exchange telephone numbers with people, but when I have it is always one person calls the other that we do, mainly as people can’t remember where to find the infrared menu options! For Q1, my mobile phone number is 090-xxxx-8128, but I haven’t a clue what the four digits in the middle are. Read the rest of this entry »
Not surprisingly, according to this survey conducted by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com on the topic of taking electrical goods to the seaside, very few electrical items survived their salty plunges! Let this survey be a warning for you on your own summer holidays!
Demographics
Between the 15th and 18th of July 2008 1,094 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 10.0% in their teens, 24.9% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 19.3% in their forties, and 24.1% aged fifty or older.
I’ve never actually been to the beach in Japan; there’s not actually very much sand around the shores, and any place that does have it is more crowded than a rush-hour train. I was at a beach last week, though; two miles of perfect sand, not many more than two dozen people in total, perfect weather. Not unsurprisingly, this wasn’t in Japan! Read the rest of this entry »
With at least two manufacturers of generic medicines advertising on television, this recent survey from goo Research conducted in conjunction with the Yomiuri Shimbun, revealed a high degree of awareness of generic medicines in Japan.
Demographics
Over the end of May and the start of June 2008 1,010 members of the goo Research monitor panel aged forty or older completed a private internet-based questionnaire. More detailed demographics were not given.
I can’t be bothered with generics as I infrequently take medicines with generic substitutes, and the only one I tke regularly is still under patent, so there’s no generic alternative available.
Here’s an advertisement that often appears that asks people to pluck up the courage to ask the quack for an alternative.
This is a fascinating topic, which reveals quite a generational gap for how people spent their honeymoon. The survey was conducted by goo Research in conjuction with AllAbout Japan.
Demographics
Over the 15th and 16th of May 2008 1,080 married women from the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 20.1% of the sample were between 25 and 29 years old, 20.4% between 30 and 34, 19.9% between 50 and 54, 19.7% between 55 and 59, and 19.9% between 60 and 64 years old. For those who may have remarried, it doesn’t say if they should answer for their current marriage or for all.
My honeymoon was all over Europe – wedding in Scotland, then to Amsterdam where we got our video nicked, then Austria and Germany in slightly posher hotels. We’ve since been back to just about everywhere, except for Amsterdam, of course! We took about 16 days for it, although the guests we had to drag along from Japan stayed just three days, which seemed such a gross waste of time and expense, most of it ours. Read the rest of this entry »
This is a fascinating topic, which reveals quite a generational gap for how people spent their honeymoon. The survey was conducted by goo Research in conjuction with AllAbout Japan.
Demographics
Over the 15th and 16th of May 2008 1,080 married women from the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 20.1% of the sample were between 25 and 29 years old, 20.4% between 30 and 34, 19.9% between 50 and 54, 19.7% between 55 and 59, and 19.9% between 60 and 64 years old. For those who may have remarried, it doesn’t say if they should answer for their current marriage or for all.
My honeymoon was all over Europe – wedding in Scotland, then to Amsterdam where we got our video nicked, then Austria and Germany in slightly posher hotels. We’ve since been back to just about everywhere, except for Amsterdam, of course! We took about 16 days for it, although the guests we had to drag along from Japan stayed just three days, which seemed such a gross waste of time and expense, most of it ours. Read the rest of this entry »
Perhaps I over-estimate the average Japanese consumer’s desire for value before reputation, but I found the results of this survey conducted by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into computers at home quite surprising.
The 15th of August this year marked the 63rd anniversary of the surrender of Japan. To find out what young people think of 
This is a very straightforward look at a quite straitforward subject, 
Recently, goo Research, in conjuction with All About, looked at 
In the west, I hear that Bluetooth-based telephone number and email address exchange is the standard way. However, this recent survey conducted by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into 
Not surprisingly, according to this survey conducted by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com on the topic of 
This is a fascinating topic, which reveals quite a generational gap for how people spent their 
This is a fascinating topic, which reveals quite a generational gap for how people spent their 
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