世論 What Japan Thinks

iShare recently published a curious set of results from a survey they conducted into nameplates outside Japanese homes.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 22nd of December 2009 531 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.2% of the sample were male, 33.3% in their twenties, 34.3% in their thirties, and 32.4% in their forties.

One interesting fact I recently learnt about Google Street View Japan is that in responce to claims about privacy infringement, as well as blurring out faces and car registration plates as they do elsewhere, they also blanked out nameplates for Japan only.
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A recent survey from Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com looked at people’s home computer environment. This is a topic I previously covered almost two years ago.

Demographics

Between the 10th and 14th of September 2009 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 1.0% were in their teens, 19.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 20.0% in their fifties, and 20.0% aged sixty or older.

Q2 is a bit vague in the wording, as especially for a portable machine, the room in which it is placed, which implies when not in use, and the room in which it is used may differ. I know when I take my work note PC home it sits in the study/spare room when I’m not using it, but I bring it through to the kitchen table when I want to use it. However my main desktop sits permanently at a computer desk in the study.

Which reminds me, I really should organise the area around my computer desk to be a proper homeworking setup…
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Over the first five days of April 2007 MyVoice surveyed its internet community regarding home loans.

Demographics

17,241 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet-based survey. 54% were female, 19% in their twenties, 40% in their thirties, 26% in their forties, and 15% in their fifties. Note that since one needs to be over 20 to get a loan, teenagers were excluded from this survey.

I have a loan, and I fall into the higher brackets in Q3 and Q4. Note that contrary to popular belief, it is not impossible for non-permanent residents to get a home loan, although naturally, any credit scoring that takes place will be rather harsh on those without demonstratable commitment to Japan. I got mine whilst in the process of applying for permanent residency, although they did not ask for any proof that this was actually the case. I am also a full employee (正社員, seishain) of a major company, so that no doubt helped me get a scary multiple of my salary as a loan, one which I am due to be paying off until I am 75…
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