世論 What Japan Thinks

With the hayfever season still in full swing in Japan – we’ve moved from cedar to hinoki cypress this week – japan.internet.com reported on a survey from goo Research into hayfever, looking particularly at where people find out about the pollen forecast.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 24th of March 2013 1,079 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.2% in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

My hayfever is a little funny this year – I had a horrendous hayfever-like reaction to something at the end of December last year, but despite this year having elevated levels of pollen, all I had was a mildly blocked nose and gentle sneezing. Instead of having to beat the ENT doctor’s door down at the start of March as usual, this time I just went as I had a free afternoon at the end of March, and the doctor seemed surprised that my nose was showing few signs of irritation, so he did a blood test for allergen markers, but I still haven’t got round to picking up the results.

Here’s a link to an online pollen forecast for my prefecture. The pink/purple mark is for “exceptionally large amounts”.
Read the rest of this entry »

The start of the new financial and university year this month also brings us to the house moving season, so this look by goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into property searching is rather timely.

Demographics

Over the 8th and 9th of March 2013 1,085 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.2% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 17.9% in their twenties, 21.8% in their thirties, 16.4% in their forties, 15.5% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

The three times I searched for a flat in Japan, the first two times were with the aid of my employer filtering offerings from an estate agent, and the third time was via fliers that came through the door, not really the most high-tech method available!
Read the rest of this entry »

This recent short report from japan.internet.com on a survey by goo Research into IT device security, the second time they have conducted this survey, the first being in November 2012.

Demographics

Between the 7th and 12th of March 2012 1,033 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.5% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 17.9% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, and 27.9% aged fifty or older.

Here’s a scam virus advert on a tablet:

I seem to remember translating the previous survey, but I cannot find it on the site. Perhaps I got half-way through and decided it wasn’t interesting enough to be published?

Anyway, I’m curious why tablet security is increasing but smartphone staying static. One factor in the tablet rise is no doubt due to Android increasing market share, and curiously enough if all the extra 36 tablet owners in Q1SQ were non-iOS users, and all of them used security software, then the rise from 42.1% to 55.2% is explained, but I’m sure that’s just a numerical fluke.
Read the rest of this entry »

japan.internet.com recently reported on the 7th regular survey by goo Research into mobile phone, smartphone upgrades.

Demographics

Over the 25th and 26th of February 2013 1,073 mobile phone-using (including smartphone-using) members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 1.0% in their teens, 10.6% in their twenties, 24.5% in their thirties, 29.1% in their forties, and 34.8% aged fifty or older.

I’m surprised to see Sharp in second place, as I feel they hardly do any advertising these days, although I suppose avoiding going bust is a more important issue for them to be worrying about. I’m also surprised to see Samsung so low, as conversely they have about the most adverts on television, although I thought this often-shown one for the Galaxy Note would have been the average Japanese person’s nightmare to have their own photo spread around the internet like that.
Read the rest of this entry »

japan.internet.com recently reported on the seventh regular survey by goo Research into mobile devices, with the focus this time on tablets.

Demographics

Between the 4th and 9th of March 2013 1,085 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.6% of the sample were male, 13.5% in their teens, 15.8% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 17.4% in their forties, and 32.0% aged fifty or older.

I really do feel that tablet use is increasing; on my commute there is invariably at least one person using a tablet, and the most common uses appear to be general surfing or reading. Today I say my first person running LINE chatRead the rest of this entry »

This is a curious topic for a survey, conducted by goo Research and reported on japan.internet.com, namely home appliance electronic sounds, the beeps and blips that many (most?) white goods make.

Demographics

Between the 25th and 27th of February 2013 1,094 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.6% of the sample were male, 13.7% in their teens, 15.7% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 17.0% in their forties, 14.6% in their fifties, and 17.4% aged sixty or older.

It’s been so long since I’ve been in the UK, but do western kitchen goods beep much? My microwave has a tone when it finishes, then three quick beeps every two minutes afterwards until you open the door. The rice cooker has an ugly beep when it cooks, the washing machine plays a few bars of Mozart on completion, and the bath plays a tune then announces “The bath has been drawn!” once it fills itself.
Read the rest of this entry »

japan.internet.com reported on the seventh regular survey by goo Research into internet advertising.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 23rd of February 2013 1,091 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.1% of the sample were male, 16.2% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 16.4% in their forties, and 27.9% aged fifty or older.

If my experience is anything to go by, more people seeing contextual advertisements perhaps seems to mean more people avoiding them…

I don’t really appreciate the subtle difference between the “don’t know” and “didn’t know they appeared” answers in the questions below!
Read the rest of this entry »

This is a survey that I hope goo Research will make into a series, their look at tablet devices, as reported by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 1st and 3rd of February 2013 1,087 members of the goo Research online 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, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 15.5% in their fifties, and 12.3% aged sixty or older.

Note that the one-sixth in the title refers to the one-sixth of the population that are members of goo Research, so there might be a positive bias towards tablet owners, but on the other hand one can imagine reasons why there might also be a negative bias.

A tablet is something I’d like to buy for the house for the times when I cannot be bothered booting up my netbook just to check the headlines or the like. The seven-inch Google Nexus tablet seems like a good fit for what I need.
Read the rest of this entry »

japan.internet.com recently reported on the highlights of a survey from goo Research looking at cloud services.

Demographics

Beween the 22nd and 25th of January 2013 1,094 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internert-based questionnaire. 53.3% of the sample were male, 13.2% in their teens, 15.6% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 17.6% in their forties, 14.6% in their fifties, and 17.6% aged sixty or older.

I think this survey defines “cloud service” as “any service you have used on your local computer but now (also) use on the internet”, which is not my understanding. Cloud services to me imply a dynamic use model, so for storage, instead of signing up to a 50 Gb for $5 plan as is the usual model, instead you pay 10 cents per Gb uploaded and 5 cents per Gb downloaded. Mind you, now I think about it, from the service provider’s point of view they are providing a cloud service; I know that some online storage providers with flat-rate models actually use Amazon’s pay-per-use system at the back-end, and even something as boring as a shopping site may be located in a cloud service to cope with the ebb and flow in demand.
Read the rest of this entry »

japan.internet.com recently reported on one aspect of a survey by goo Research into manga (comics) that found that about one in three paper readers were also consumers on electronic devices.

Demographics

Between the 8th and 10th of January 2013 1,075 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.6% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.9% in their thirties, 15.8% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.

Instead of a comic on a mobile phone, let’s have a mobile phone in a comic:

I’ve never read a manga electronically in any form, but coincidentally today at lunchtime I noticed a colleage reading one on a tablet computer.
Read the rest of this entry »