世論 What Japan Thinks

japan.internet.com recently reported on the results of a survey by goo Research into smartphone recharging.

Demographics

Between the 7th and 10th of January 2013 1,082 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their teens, 18.0% in their twenties, 22.0% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, 15.9% in their fifties, and 11.8% aged sixty or older.

Not surprisingly, I too am disappointed in my phone’s battery life. Although I don’t use it much, the battery has a bad habit of leaking power – or more likely, Android has a bad habit of eating the battery when I least expect it. On the other hand, as I type this I wonder if the fact that Android can display a usage percentage makes people feel the battery being used up faster versus older phone where there was just a three segment display? That would be an interesting psychological survey!
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It’s back to work for What Japan Thinks with this survey from December by goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into games machines and smartphone games, their second regular survey into this topic. I must have missed the first one, but this survey superceded a previous series that looked into just games machines.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 20th of December 2012 1,067 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, 18.7% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 15.9% in their forties, and 27.5% aged fifty or older.

My gaming is recently 100% smartphone based, and my solitary smartphone game is Andoku, a Sudoku clone with 800 standard boards (I’m just over halfway through), then another 3 sets of 800 boards of other game variants – I see the new version now has 10,000 boards, but also has adverts, so the paid-for and ad-free version will be worth it. The game’s surely going to outlast my smartphone, and I’m not sure if it will be possible to transfer my played state across to a new device.
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japan.internet.com reported on the 6th regular survey into terrestrial digital television conducted by goo Research. However, the regularity of this survey is diminishing somewhat now that it is pretty much ubiquitous.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 9th of November 2012 1,086 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 16.2% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, and 28.1% aged fifty or older.

One possible reason for the increase in television watching might be more to do with the depressed economy and people spending more time at home, thus it’s not that digital makes programmes any better, it’s that people cannot afford to do much else.

The survey ends by noting that it would be nice if the focus of the survey could move to consumption of contents; broadcast versus recorded versus on demand versus YouTube, for example.
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goo Research recently conducted a survey into overseas travel and language learning, the highlights of which japan.internet.com published.

Demographics

Between the 7th and 9th of November 2012 1,094 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.2% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.4% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

I too much specify a preference for real books and real language schools, which leads me to think that perhaps there is an age bias in this survey. The figures were not reported, but older people tend to travel overseas more (I think…), thus older people would tend to be more wedded to 20th century technology, thus the bias away from virtual learning?

Since I’m mentioning online learning, I’ll put in a good word for Tofugu; he offers online Japanese courses along with his rather entertaining blog.
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This survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, looked at social gift services, a term that is new to me but appears to be related to sending an SNS, social game, etc contact a present through an in-SNS or in-game service, be it either a virtual or a physical item, with the service protecting privacy at both ends in the case of a physical item being delivered.

Demographics

Between the 31st of October and the 2nd of November 2012 1,104 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.4% of the sample were male, 16.2% in their teens, 17.6% in their twenties, 21.3% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 16.3% in their fifties, and 12.3% aged sixty or older.

Here is a short article on Facebook’s entry into the market.

A few years ago mixi started a free New Years greeting card service, so I suppose gifts are an obvious extension to this. I can’t say I’d ever have much of a desire to use it, though!
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goo Research recently conducted a survey into recipe sites and recipe apps, and this report on japan.internet.com found a majority used such facilities.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 26th of October 2012 1,079 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 17.9% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 16.4% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

Just to throw in a word for my employer, Panasonic make a microwave oven with an NFC chip that allows programming it from a smartphone by selecting recipes available on Cookpad. When talking to friends overseas about this, they seemed to think it was a bit over the top as the typical model of usage in the west is for reheating, I think, but given that many homes in Japan do not have ovens, the microwave plays a bigger role over here. Furthermore, the top-end Panasonic microwave fitted with RFID allows different foods to be simultaneously cooked in the front or back and top or bottom of the oven, so getting your smartphone to do it is a distinct advantage.
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japan.internet.com recently reported on goo Research’s sixth regular survey into mobile devices, which shows for the first time a reversal in smartphone growth.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 25th of October 2012 1,077 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their teens, 17.9% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, and 27.9% aged fifty or older.

I heard from my wife that (sorry for the inaccuracy, but it’s the best I can do!) that a TV show recently said that according to a survey, about 40% of women (in their thirties or all ages, she wasn’t quite clear) who had smartphones either kept their feature phones, wanted to get an extra feature phone, or wanted to ditch their smartphones. This survey is perhaps the first indication of this trend that What Japan Thinks has picked up. I’ll be keen to see how the next survey looks, especially that although docomo’s summer 2012 line-up did not include any feature phones, their winter 2012-2013 line-up includes four bog-standard last-gen iMode clamshells from four different Japanese manufacturers.
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A recent survey from goo Research, conducted in conjunction with the primary school children-oriented site Kids goo, looked at primary school teachers’ work, and in particular their use of IT, information technology.

Demographics

The sample came from primary school teachers registered with the goo Research online monitor group, and 206 people responded to the survey. Further details, including basic information like when the survey was conducted, was not reported.

Although the sample is quite small, note that it was targeted at elementary school teachers, so the accuracy is perhaps better than a quick look at the numbers would suggest.

I don’t know how computers are used in schools, really, but I do worry that replacing concrete, tangible activities with computer-based ones (if that, indeed, is what is going on) is detrimental to children’s development.

Research results

Q1: What sources do you use for preparing lessons? (Sample size=206, multiple answer)

Books	91.7%
Internet	80.1%
Practical lessons	44.2%
Newspapers	31.6%
Television, video	18.9%
Other	3.9%

Q2: Do you feel a gap between your and your pupils’ computer skills? (Sample size=206)

Pupils are ahead by a wide margin	32.0%
Not much gap, but pupils are more skilled	24.3%
No gap	43.7%

Q3: Which of the following computer skills do you have? (Sample size=206, multiple answer)

Can use mail efficiently	86.9%
Can answer questions from students	77.7%
Can teach them about online morals	62.1%
Can respond to computer problems during lessons	61.2%
Other	1.9%

Q4: Have you ever had a pupil or parent, guardian discuss internet issues with you? (Sample size=206)

	Yes	No
From pupils	26.7%	73.3%
From parents, guardians	15.0%	85.0%

Q5: Do you have worries about pupils’ internet use? (Sample size=206)

Yes	63.1%
No	17.0%
Can’t say	19.9%

Q6: What kinds of web sites might you want to use, let your pupils use? (Sample size=206, multiple answer)

Protects children’s safety	75.7%
Designed for children	73.8%
Information arranged by subject, school grade, etc	70.4%
Can trust the site operators	61.7%
Widely-known, famous	33.0%
Recommended by the Board of Education	22.3%
Other	1.9%

Q7: Have you ever taught a lesson that used iPads, other tablet computers? (Sample size=206)

Yes	7.3%
No	92.7%

One aspect where Japan lags far behind many other countries is the availability of Wi-Fi, so to see what people were doing regarding internet access when away from home, goo Research conducted a survey into Wi-Fi, the highlights of which were reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Over the 18th and 19th of September 2012 1,088 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.6% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 15.8% in their forties, 15.4% in their fifties, and 12.7% aged sixty or older.

The guy above has found the Nintendo hotspot at the Tokyo Pokemon Center!

The number of access points in Japan is steadily increasing, but mostly branded for each of the mobile carriers, so one needs an account to access them, but fortunately the access is usually free with your mobile phone plan. SoftBank in particular are popping up everywhere, so they must be offering nice incentives for shops to install them, and docomo is slowly spreading through the rail network. Just last week the station next to the office got Wi-Fi, but sadly I cannot pick it up from my desk!

I was surprised to see tethering so low down on the list, however. In Q1SQ, “On the move” may include riding on public transport – some long-distance busses and bullet trains, for instance, offer such services.
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goo Research recently conducted a survey into smartphones, the results of which were reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 4th and 6th of September 2012 1,088 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.0% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 11.9% aged sixty or older.

You’ll notice that the top five features in Q2 are all areas where the iPhone would score highly. On the other hand, the choice of answers does not seem to contain any specific feature-related replies, such as NFC smartcard, TV or radio reception, etc.

One of my colleagues who currently uses a feature phone on docomo (I think it is) was going to take a day off to queue for the iPhone 5, but it now appears that they have ordered it online instead!
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