世論 What Japan Thinks

The SoftBank adverts are my favourites, although there is always the risk of over-exposure with the dog even recently featuring in a photo book and a DVD. However, this recent survey from BlogCh showed no signs of flagging popularity when they asked about mobile phone television commercials.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 17th of July 2008 370 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 14.6% in their twenties, 49.2% in their thirties, 28.6% in their forties, and 7.6% in their teens or over fifty.

I wonder if they’ll have the SoftBank dog using the iPhone? Given that another survey today indicated that the euphoria has passed, will they trot out their dog to flog some more kit? Will they introduce a new character? They had five rather unpleasant cats recently but they only lasted a week or so. Oh, and here is Dante Carver, the black guy who plays second fiddle to a white dog.

Q3 also brings me to another pet hate (as it were) with the SoftBank mutt coming tops as a fireworks partner. Back in the UK, in the run-up to November the 5th they’d be public service advertisements and other reminders to keep pets indoors to avoid them getting spooked by fireworks, but I’ve never heard of such a thing over here.

Finally, if you’re a SoftBank customer, here’s your chance to win a talking Oto-san bank or strap and free Oto-san themed games and deco-mail!
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With the iPhone era in Japan now about three weeks old, and with previous surveys showing vast numbers of people willing to sell their own grannies in exchange for an iPhone, this survey from BlogCh into the iPhone, conducted the weekend after the release of the Jesus Phone shows a bit about how the Japanese have reacted.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 22nd of July 2008 433 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 65.8% of the sample were female, 9.9% in their teens, 28.2% in their twenties, 43.2% in their thirties, 15.0% in their forties, and 3.7% aged fifty or older.

The sample size is a bit small, as is the number of purchasers from the sample, so it is a bit difficult to extrapolate the numbers, but I’ll of course keep my eyes peeled for further data in the coming months. However, just 3 people are planning to buy later, which does suggest that the euphoria has passed. Despite being cheaper than first predicted by me, cost scares off more than two in five.

I know at least two of my Japanese readers were more than willing to kick the SoftBank dog out of the way (and perhaps even the SoftBank lady out of bed) to get their hands on an iPhone, but I’ve not seen any English-language reviews of how it performs in Japan. Drop me a line if you know of any, and I’ll link to them from here.
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With tomorrow (July 11, 2008) being release day in Japan of the 3G iPhone through SoftBank, I thought I’d add to the tsunami of articles by adding this survey from BlogCh that looks at, amongst other things, what people feel is stopping them from buying Softbank’s iPhone.

Demographics

Between the 27th and 30th of June 2008 427 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.1% of the sample were male, 11.5% in their twenties, 49.2% in their thirties, 32.3% in their forties, and 7.0% other ages. The sample was pre-screened with all selected being holders of personal-use mobile phones.

It’s very interesting to note in Q2 that women seem slightly more interested in the iPhone than men, and in the detailed breakdown by current provider (see original survey for details) I think I could detect some envy amongst DoCoMo users!

One ease of use issue I’ve not seen specifically addressed but which is important in Japan is whether you can write email one-handed hanging off a strap in a crowded train. Inability to be thumb-driven in this fashion will be a black mark among reviewers, I suspect.

Commenting on another blog, I just realised that here about 13.3% are investigating purchasing, whereas earlier this month when looking at all the regular new models from DoCoMo, au and SoftBank just 6.7% wanted to buy any one of all the other summer 2008 phones. Incredible!

I also see that Strapya is already decked out with a few 3G iPhone accessories from Japan!

I’m gobsmacked that a smack in the gob is considered acceptable corporal punishment by about three in five Japanese! This is just one result from a genuinely shocking survey on corporal punishment.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 25th of June 2008 467 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a pirvate internet-based questionnaire. 52% of the sample were male, 13.9% in their twenties, 46.0% in their thirties, 31.9% in their forties, and 8.1% of other ages.

I hope I’m not making a huge mistake with the translation here, as the results are so counter-intuitive to my western mind. In Q4, I think the question is what people think is appropriate as a means of punishment for students. Any advice on the correctness or otherwise of this assumption is most welcome. I’m also a bit shakey on Q2.

The Japanese phrase used for corporal punishment in this survey is 愛のムチ, ai no muchi, which translated as “tough love”. According to Japanese law I believe it is banned in school, although according to many people I know who work in Japanese schools it is very much alive and kicking.
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Although a survey last year showed that around 40% fancied an iPhone, now we have the first survey regarding the concrete release date to see if people are prepared to put their money where their mouths are. This survey was conducted by iShare and BlogCh and the topic was actually mobile phone battery changing, but since the iPhone doesn’t have a user-changeable battery pack, they shoehorned an iPhone question in.

Demographics

Over the 5th and 6th of June 2008 402 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.5% of the sample was male, 12.2% in their twenties, 43.5% in their thirties, 34.8% in their forties, and 9.5% in their teens or over fifty.

If you’ve read my recent estimate of monthly fees for a SoftBank iPhone you may be put off buying it, I suspect. I’ve had some criticism of my figures, but I wanted to choose 300 free minutes as a realistic figure, as that is just 10 minutes a day with free calls only to other SoftBank owners, and the X Series unlimited packet service at 9,800 yen a month is their Smartphone tariff, and although there is a sliding scale of charges, the upper limit of 52,500 packets per month is just 6.7 megabytes of data, or about 224 kilobytes per day, or just one page of many popular web sites, thus surely everyone will use their full allowance.
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This is a genuine survey that is not really quite silly enough for a Sunday, but since it’s a Sunday I can have more fun playing with the results, as can be seen in the graph above, generated from the results of a recent survey conducted by iShare into using mobiles in the loo.

Demographics

Between the 30th of May and the 2nd of June 2008 743 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a members-only internet-based questionnaire. 56.1% of the sample were male, 25.8% in their twenties, 35.0% in their thirties, and 39.2% in their forties. All of them were pre-screened as users of personal mobile phones.

I occassionally write email in the toilet cubicles at work, and judging from the rattlings of mobile phone straps, so do quite a few of my colleagues. I’ve never quite gone as far as sneaking off explicitly to email, though. I’ve once seen someone at a urinal talking on the telephone, which I thought was just a bit much.

If you want to celebrate your furtive phone use, or protect your phone against falling down the pan (or perhaps not), the people at Strapya do a lovely line in golden poo-shaped mascots and straps.
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Following on from some news from the Yomiuri about religious belief, this time it is BlogCh and iShare looking at two types of fraudulent nonsense, blood typing and fortune telling.

Demographics

Both surveys were conducted between the 22nd and 24th of May 2008. For the blood type survey, 506 people completed the online survey, including 30 people who didn’t know their blood type. 55.7% of the sample were male, 12.3% in their twenties, 48.2% in their thirties, 28.7% in their forties, and 10.9% of other ages. For the astrology survey, 504 people completed the online survey. 55.3% of the sample were male, 12.3% in their twenties, 48.2% in their thirties, 28.6% in their forties, and 10.9% of other ages. All respondents were members of the free mail forwarding service CLUB BBQ.

It should be rather obvious where I stand on the issue, but I must admit to watching and enjoying the blood type race every weekday morning at about 9:50 at the end of Toku Da Ne. It’s quite fun to watch just to see if my wife or I win, and the advice is usually quite silly, although I always suspect she takes it rather more seriously than me.

Regarding Q2, my wife was convinced that I was type B, and she knew she was an A, as they both fitted her image of our personalities, but when we had a health check a few years ago, the results came back with different blood types for both of us.

Oh, I nearly forgot my two contributions to the world of divination, My Buddhist Name and brainscannr.
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Sorry for the rather boring headline, but since Nakamura ate my dog last week, I thought I’d better stay clear of any suggestive remarks regarding cat-owning young Japanese women and photographs of their… well, I hope you get the picture, so when you do, please forward it to me. Anyway, back at the survey, BlogCh and CLUB BBQ investigated pets.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 6th of May 2008 582 users of the free email forwarding service CLUB BBQ completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.9% of the sample was male, 15.5% in their twentes, 42.7% in their thirties, 31.9% in their forties, and 9.9% of other ages.

Pictured above is my lovely American Shorthair who is also my mobile phone wallpaper.

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This short but rather sweet survey from blogch and iShare into ranking of what is considered personal information made me think, and I hope it does the same for you.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 14th of May 2008 636 members of blogch completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.9% of the sample was male, 14.5% in their twenties, 46.7% in their thirties, 27.4% in their forties, and 11.5% in their teens or over fifty.

I don’t know why home email address was not included in the survey, nor why people help their age more private than their date of birth!

For me, there is no way I would part with my cell phone number and email address, and for passport number, I’d query the need for people to ask for it rather than be concerned about the privacy issue.

All junk mail, as well as all other envelopes with addresses on them, go through the shredder before disposal, although I always suspect that the reason is more to stop the rubbish police tracking us down for chucking stuff out on the wrong day!

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I may be trying to outdo Tokyo Times for alliterative headlines, but I’ll not be challenging his collection of themed bras and panties. (Each word is a different link!) This is instead a photograph-free fact-filled serious survey into pantie purchasing (OK, you get the idea, back to normal!) conducted by iShare and reported through BlogCh.

Demographics

Between the 7th and 9th of May 2008 723 members of the iShare online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.1% of the sample was male, 20.5% were in their twenties, 53.4% in their thirties, and 26.1% in their forties.

The lucky underwear in Q3, or as it’s known in Japanese, 勝負下着, shoubu shitagi, refers to underwear worn on the whole, I think, when going on dates (or just going out) in the hope of getting lucky.

I’m not really sure about the 1.0% of guys wearing T-backs in Q4, and I wonder if going commando is a significant percentage of the others in Q4 and Q5.

Most of mine are Hello Kitty and other cute character boxers, bought by the wife, if you must know!
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