世論 What Japan Thinks

With the ubiquity of computers and cell phones, penmanship skills become less and less used. To see how this affects the average Japanese, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into handwriting and character input. This is a survey I’d love to see in full!

Demographics

Over the 21st and 22nd of April 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor pool completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.8% of the sample was female, 3.6% in their teens, 16.7% in their twenties, 36.1% in their thirties, 28.5% in their forties, 8.8% in their fifties, 5.8% in their sixties, and 0.6% aged seventy or older.

I translated a similar survey on literacy back in June of 2006. This time almost 60% had over 10 years of computer usage, and in total almost 90% had over five years experience, so this sample mostly contained mature users.

I use the computer on the whole to prepare documents, but when being creative, in particular when forming ideas, I use paper to sketch out, as the limitations of a keyboard stunt my inventive processes. Meeting minutes and notes are also always done on paper as I can simultaneously write and listen better than I can type and listen. Also, if I can’t be bothered switching on my computer in the train I’ll just use paper there.
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As the amount of free minutes bundled with mobile phones in Japan are limited, indeed it never seems to be a feature of advertising, but on the other hand many people rely on email rather than voice to communicate, this survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into fixed line phones reveals something about what choices people have made.

Demographics

On the 11th of April 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor panel successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 71.2% were male (a high percentage given that this is not their usual employee-only style survey), 0.6% were in their teens, 17.6% were in their twenties, 42.7% in their thrties, 30.0% in their forties, 8.2% in their fifties, and 0.9% in their sixties.

I’ve not used a public phone for years in Japan, although the mother-in-law does quite often call when she is out. Perhaps we ought to buy her one of these old folk mobile phones and put her on the family plan so we can call freely. However, I don’t think the call volumes justify it, as we have an extremely cheap fixed-line phone plan, so even regular one hour phone calls rarely run up enough of a bill to justify the phone rental costs.
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About the only radio I hear is when I visit the union shop at work and they have a radio playing in the background, but all the English radio idents grate on me! To find out about the habits of the average person, JR Tokai Express Research Inc performed a survey, reported on by japan.internet.com, into radio.

Demographics

Between the 8th and 10th of April 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor group successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.3% of the sample was female, 2.4% were in their teens, 17.0% in their twenties, 38.2% in their thirties, 27.3% in their forties, 7.9% in their fifties, 6.7% in their sixties, and 0.6% aged seventy or older.

Note that digital radio started broadcasting on the 1st of December 2006. I’ve never listened to it, unless hire cars have had it, but even then it would never have been more than 20 seconds I listened for. In addition, since I almost never listen to the radio, I can’t recall ever hearing a URL or an email address on an advertisement.
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Japan’s home-grown YouTube, the member-only Nico Nico Douga that charges for peak-time usage and doesn’t allow embedding in other web sites is still trying to catch up with the aforementioned YouTube. To see what the Japanese think of the site, JR Tokai Express performed a survey reported on by japan.internet.com into Nico Nico Douga.

Demographics

On the 8th of April 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor pool employed in either the public or the private sector completed an internet-based questionnaire. 80.0% of the sample was male, 12.1% were in their twenties, 37.6% in their thirties, 37.9% in their forties, 10.9% in their fifties, and 1.5% in their sixties.

On the 1st of April this year Niwango Inc, the operators of Nico Nico Douga, signed an agreement with JASRAC (the Japanese Society of Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers) to the effect that they would only allow users to upload videos of themselves performing copyrighted material, but not surprisingly infringing material is also still making its way onto the site.
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An important part of any technical person’s job is, I believe, to keep up with the latest innovations, and one way of doing so is to read White Papers published by companies that describe their advances in research and development. This recent report published on japan.internet.com and conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into White Papers looks at the habits of Japanese.

Demographics

On the 3rd of April 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor panel employed in either private or public industry completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 83.6% were male, 10.3% in their twenties, 41.5% in their thirties, 36.1% in their forties, 10.6% in their fifties, and 1.5% in their sixties..

There is the other kind of White Paper, that published by governments as forerunners to drafting of bills or for explanations of policies. I cannot say I have read any for sure, but I may have glanced at one or two, or they may just have been draft bills.

I’ve always wanted to write a White Paper, but as my employer emphasises patents as the key way of disclosing new ideas, this is what I end up producing.
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Here’s a quickie report from japan.internet.com on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into customising one’s desktop at home.

Demographics

On the 31st of March 2008 331 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor panel employed in either the public or private sector successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 78.5% of the sample was male, 12.1% in their twenties, 39.0% in their thirties, 36.9% in their forties, 10.6% in their fifties, and 1.5% in their sixties.

I don’t bother with gadgets myself. I did once try out Opera-based ones, but they just got in the way, as does Google’s toolbar stuff, so I keep that safely out of the way docked at the bottom of the screen.
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With the Nova bunny finally succumbing to myxomatosis last year, there has been a good number of people with nowhere to learn English. So, this recent survey from JR Tokai Express Research Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com regarding studying English conversation looks at if people might be interested in virtually learning the language.

Demographics

On the 29th of March 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor panel employed in either public or private industry completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 77.9% of the sample was male, 12.4% in their twenties, 41.2% in their thirties, 34.5% in their forties, 10.3% in their fifties, and 1.5% in their sixties.

English conversation differs from actual English language study, as it is based on the theory that if you sit a Japanese person beside an English speaker, there will be a miraculous transfer of the contents of the victim’s wallet language abilities. There are of course a few good schools and teachers, but the mass market companies are not much more than social clubs for both the students and teachers.
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I run anti-virus software at home, and at work of course, but there always is the worry that it’s chewing up system resources – at work a full disk scan starts at noon on Wednesdays and takes around two hours to process my desktop, rendering most other tasks pretty much unusable – but better safe than sorry, which is, I suppose, how TrendMicro and the rest make their money. To find out what the average Japanese person uses at home, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into anti-virus software.

Demographics

On the 19th of March 2008 331 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor group employed in either the private or public sector completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 83.7% of the sample was male, 10.6% in their twenties, 38.4% in their thirties, 35.3% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 3.0% in their sixties.

For free software, the best virus protection is probably AVG Anti-Virus, which I recommend should be used in conjunction with a spyware detector, with SpyBot Search and Destroy being the one I employ on a regular basis.
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I don’t think I’ve mis-sent email last year, and I can only think of two incidents in the last few years where I have. One was in the office sending to my ex-team instead of my current team, so no problem, but the other was one I meant to send privately to a single person on a mailing list but I accidentally sent it to all, complete with a none-to-flattering portrayal of the list owner. Surprisingly enough I was summarily banned… Sadly, this recent report on japan.internet.com rearding a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research into mis-sent electronic mail at the workplace doesn’t dwell on the consequences suffered!

Demographics

On the 13th of March 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor panel employed in either the public or private sector completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 81.2% of the sample was male, 8.8% in their twenties, 39.4% in their thirties, 38.8% in their forties, 11.8% in their fifties, and 1.2% in their sixties.

I’m surprised in Q1SQ2 that as many as a third of wrongly-addressed mail recipients replied to say the mail was incorrectly sent! At work we are supposed to set our mail programs to display a confirmation message before sending to give you a last chance to review data, although I don’t know how effective that is, or indeed if many people actually bother with it.
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I run an ad blocker, although I keep Google ads live (and I hope you do too!) as they are mostly pretty lightweight and quick to load, and most importantly usually text-only. I do very occasionally click search ads but don’t really find them that useful, and this recent survey reported on by japan.internet.com and performed by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into web search showed that a lot of Japanese do too.

Demographics

Over the 3rd and 4th of March 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.3% of the sample was male, 3.6% in their teens, 15.2% in their twenties, 37.6% in their thirties, 25.8% in their forties, 9.1% in their fifties, 5.8% in their sixties, and 3.0% aged seventy or older.

Note that because many television and print advertisements feature search keywords rather than URLs, rather than engage in SEO activities to naturally boost a product’s home page the companies buy advertising space on the major search engines, thus, perhaps, Japanese people pay more attention to the sponsored links.

From what I’ve heard, if you want to advertise Google of course gives you the largest audience, but Yahoo!’s customers are more click-happy and keen to buy, although Yahoo! has a higher minimum cost per click charge. MSN/Windows Live seems actually to be the best from an overall package point of view, but looking at the results below, if you’re trying to sell in Japan you won’t see much business!
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