世論 What Japan Thinks

goo Ranking looked at quite a fun subject, what excuses people have for not being able to use their days off effectively.

Demographics

From the 3rd to the 6th of August 2012 1,038 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 61.7% of the sample were female, 10.2% in their teens, 15.5% in their twenties, 27.2% in their thirties, 26.4% in their forties, 10.8% in their fifties, and 9.9% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Being married, I’m not allowed to do the above, but instead I have a lot of housework, so I end up doing that and very little else. We sometimes do end up wasting a bit too much time, however, watching saved-up programs of to me dubious entertainment value.
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Just a quick note to say that along with most of the rest of Japan I’m on holiday until next Sunday, so posts may be rather intermittent. I’ve got a number of good surveys that need translating, but whether or not I can find the time…

In the meantime, you can catch me on Google Plus where I am reasonably active. Drop me a note if you want an invite.

Thanks,
Ken

One of the Democratic Party of Japan’s good ideas from my point of view was to propose staggered holidays across the country rather than the current situation of all 120 million taking their May Golden Week holiday all at the same time. To see how this proposal was being received by the public, the Cabinet Office Japan conducted a survey into this topic.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 31st of October 2010 3,000 people selected at random from resident registers were approached to take part in a survey, and 1,953 people, or 65.1% agreed to a face-to-face interview. The sex breakdown was not reported.

Currently in Japan there is the Golden Week holiday over the end of April and the start of May when the vast majority of the public have a holiday, plus four public holidays are set to be on a particular Monday in a particular month. The proposal from the government is to split the country from north to south into five blocks and assign a week’s spring and autumn holiday period (the autumn holiday being new) to each block, and move the four Monday holidays to a fixed date and no longer make them public holidays.

I used to be very much in favour of this idea, but on reading a few opinions from other foreigners I’m a bit less keen on the idea, the reason being that the ideal situation would be to make easier to take holidays at one’s own convenience, just like most of the rest of the world. One benefit, however, would be an easing of traffic by spreading it over five weeks, and hopefully lower prices as hotels now have a ten week busy period rather than the current situation of just one week of complete overbooking, and the attendant increased money circulation from more people being able to take a holiday rather than just staying at home as they cannot afford to travel.
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This survey from iShare into enjoying a foreign holiday with a camera is rather appropriate as I’m currently on a foreign holiday business trip in Hawaii, as you can perhaps see from the photo below.

Demographics

Over the 14th and 15th of September 2010 2,468 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service who had had a foreign holiday completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 75.4% of the sample were male, 44.4% in their thirties, 44.5% in their forties, and 11.1% in their fifties.

I’m usually pretty hopeless at taking photos, both quantity and quality-wise, but hopefully this time at Hawaii I have redeemed myself!

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[part 1][part 2]

A recent survey from Macromill Research looked at overseas holidays, both weekend breaks via the new Haneda international terminal and longer holidays.

Demographics

Between the 25th and 27th of August 2010 1,000 members of the Macromill monitor group resident in Tokyo or one of the three surrounding prefectures of Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama and in full-time employment in either the public or private sectors completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split by sex exactly 50:50 in each of the age groups, with 25.0% in their twenties, 25.0% in their thirties, 25.0% in their forties, and 25.0% aged fifty or older.

I’m surprised by a number of the answers in Q4SQ10, as the typical image of a Japanese tourist is very much according to the Statement A, yet around half identified with the more adventurous holidaymaker. Perhaps there is a difference between what holidays the Japanese would like to take versus what holidays they actually do feel comfortable taking, as language and personal safety always features high in the lists of concerns when overseas.
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[part 1][part 2]

A recent survey from Macromill Research looked at overseas holidays, both weekend breaks via the new Haneda international terminal and longer holidays.

Demographics

Between the 25th and 27th of August 2010 1,000 members of the Macromill monitor group resident in Tokyo or one of the three surrounding prefectures of Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama and in full-time employment in either the public or private sectors completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split by sex exactly 50:50 in each of the age groups, with 25.0% in their twenties, 25.0% in their thirties, 25.0% in their forties, and 25.0% aged fifty or older.

One reason that South Korea is so popular for a short break is that their currency is really cheap these days. I’d like to visit Seoul myself just to see what it’s like, but South Korean cooking looks even less veggie-friendly than Japanese, and I prefer my spicyness limited to curry only!
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Here’s a short but sweet survey from goo Ranking, looking at when on holiday, at what moments do people wish they’d studied more English.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 23rd of June 2010 1,137 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 65.1% of the sample were female, 8.0% in their teens, 20.4% in their twenties, 31.2% in their thirties, 23.9% in their forties, 9.2% in their fifties, and 7.2% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Being a native English speaker, I of course have the benefit that any communications problems are caused by the other person not learning enough English, so just shouting a bit louder can solve all language problems.

Seriously though, in Japan I occasionally have the second problem, often as I adopt the English, not the Japanese pronunciation for certain words that should be understood by both of us. The most recent example I can think of was when I was asking if they had any Xylitol-based chewing gum, and given that I’m not even quite sure of how to say it in even in English, I had to get my Japanese wife to rescue me from the blank stares!
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Since Japan is entering holiday mode for the next week, I’ll be decreasing my posting frequency to perhaps once every two days until next Friday. To get you into the holiday mood, today goo Ranking posted up an appropriate survey looking at what makes you feel all lonely after spending all of a holiday day doing.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 25th of March 2009 1,043 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 52.2% of the sample were male, 7.8% in their teens, 17.1% in their twenties, 28.2% in their thirties, 24.8% in their forties, 11.4% in their fifties, and 10.7% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Mine might be a variation of 17, spending all day trying to tweak my PC or troubleshooting – I should run full virus scans and spyware checks, as my wife’s suffering from a dead slow Internet Explorer which also occasionally just folds up completely. I should try her on Opera and tell her it’s just a new IE version. Since a bunch of patches were downloaded two weeks ago the performance has got even worse, but I think I’ll use it as an excuse to upgrade to two gigabytes of RAM.

Photo of Calvin the cat vegging out on the sofa with the remote by dolescum on flickr.
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Although the main holiday season is over, this survey by DIMSDRIVE Research into booking lodgings for domestic travel was actually conducted in May, although DIMSDRIVE only got round to publishing it this month.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 22nd of August 2008 9,862 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.7% of the sample were female, 1.0% in their teens, 14.3% in their twenties, 34.5% in their thirties, 30.2% in their forties, 13.9% in their fifties, and 6.1% aged sixty or older.

The only domestic travel I’ve taken this year was a three-day business trip to Tokyo, but this survey is concerned with leisure travel However, wifey booked a night at Kansai Airport before our flight overseas via the internet – if you do stay at the Nikko hotel there it’s well worth joining their members’ club as you get a free room upgrade ticket for your troubles.
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With much of Japan soon to be setting out on their New Year holidays, and the rest of Japan due to be kept updated every news bulletin on the traffic situation caused by the first group, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by goo Research into how people will be spending their New Year holidays, specifically regarding internet connectivity.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 20th of December 2007 1,083 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample was male, 17.7% in their teens, 19.9% in their twenties, 17.4% in their thirties, 17.6% in their forties, 16.6% in their fifties, and 10.6% aged sixty or older.

It may be useful to refer to a survey earlier this month on how long a New Year break people are having.

As I have no plans for travel, I cannot say what I plan to do, but if I were, I certainly wouldn’t bother taking a PC with me, but if it was available I would check my mail. Having said that, the last time I took an overnight stay, a couple of the free PCs in the lobby were loaded with slightly suspicious-looking applets in the icon tray, so I gave checking my email a miss just in case there was a keylogger installed on the machines.
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