世論 What Japan Thinks

With Toshiba having thrown in the towel on HD DVD leaving the market for next-generation high-capacity optical storage to the Blu-ray consortium of manufacturers, what will the consumer do? This recent survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into Toshiba’s withdrawl of HD DVD tried to find out.

Demographics

On the 11th of March 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor group employed in either the public or private sector completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 83.0% of the sample was male, 10.9% in their twenties, 40.3% in their thirties, 35.2% in their forties, 10.9% in their fifties, and 2.7% in their sixties.

I’m surprised in Q1 that almost three times as many in this sample bought an HD DVD rather than a Blu-ray player. Was it only overseas that HD DVD died? I’ll have to look into that…
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I’ve never taken part in online auctions myself, although I’ve got a bit of rubbish high quality pre-owned goods that I could always get rid of to bring in a few extra pennies. However, it seems that a large minority of Japanese are busy buying and selling, if this recent survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc on auctions is to be believed.

Demographics

On the 6th of March 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor pool successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample was female, 17.0% in their twenties, 42.1% in their thirties, 23.3% in their forties, 9.1% in their fifties, and 8.5% in their sixties.

In a survey last week I commented on how a surprisingly high percentage of Japanese spend most online time on Yahoo! but this suggests many of them are busy with auctions!

If you want to take part in Japanese auctions, but you live overseas or cannot read Japanese too well, I usually recommend Rinkya as somewhere that provides a bidding and forwarding service for these sorts of buyers. I’ve not personally used their services, and I’ve indeed not even seen any reviews of their service, and they are not cheap, but if you need items from Japan they seem a good place to check out.
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This is a recent survey reported on by japan.internet.com and performed by JR Tokai Express Research Inc on the topic of internet site viewing habits.

Demographics

On the 4th of February 2008 334 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor group employed in the private or public sector completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 83.2% of the sample was male, 9.9% in their twenties, 39.5% in their thirties, 38.0% in their forties, 10.8% in their fifties, and 1.8% in their sixties.

That’s quite interesting, if not amazing, that three in ten spend most of their time on portals, with of course Yahoo! getting the lion’s share of that. Conversely, over half check five or less sites regularly. For myself, I’d say I spend most time at news sites, and if I count just Google Reader for all my RSS feeds, there’s less than 10 that I regularly check.
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My new place, being a bit posh, is serviced by a Co-op home delivery service that perhaps at least 10% take advantage of, but we’ve never tried, and I don’t know if people order via the phone or by the internet. Wifey also occasionally orders ready-made foods via phone, fax, and internet, so this survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into food ingredient online home delivery services was of interest to me. Note that this is for ingredients, not prepared food delivery.

Demographics

On the 22nd of February 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor team employed in either the public or private sector took part in a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.3% were male, 17.9% were in their twenties, 36.4% in their thirties, 26.1% in their forties, 6.1% in their fifties, and 8.2% in their sixties. Note that usually JR Tokai Express has 80% male when they survey employed people, so I don’t know if the more even sex balance is due to them selecting a more balanced group, an error in the report, or self-selection.

I suppose the main thing stopping me from using online ordering is that for fresh items, I really want to be able to cast my eye over them to check that I am picking the best available, not just good enough.
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Yahoo! is stupidly popular in Japan for just about everything, it seems, so this recent survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into Yahoo! JAPAN reveals what people do at the portal.

Demographics

On the 28th of February 2008 330 members of JR Tokai Express Research’s online monitor panel employed in either the private or public sector completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 82.7% of the sample were male, 10.9% in their twenties, 38.5% in their thirties, 36.1% in their forties, 11.2% in their fifties, and 3.3% in their sixties.

As suspected, last week’s survey that claimed only 18% used a portal’s train scheduler seems to be wrong, as here nearly half of all users say they use Yahoo! Transit to find their connections. I’m surprised at the large number using maps, however, as there are plenty of competing services that many businesses directly link to.
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I’m the odd one out in the office as just about everyone else uses their portable computer rather than their desktop as their main computer for less compute-intensive tasks such as email, document preparation, etc. This perhaps is a common situation in other offices too, given the results of a survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into notebook computers and mobility.

Demographics

Over the 6th and 7th of February 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor panel employed in either the private or public sector completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 83.9% were male, 9.7% in their twenties, 38.8% in their thirties, 34.8% in their forties, 13.6% in their fifties, and 3.0% in their sixties.

Q1SQ1 should be read with care, as it is not where people habitually use their notebook computers, but just places that they have. For example, 18% say they use theirs when commuting, but it doesn’t mean that one in five people in the morning rush train are typing away; it’s rare (once a week or less?) that I see anyone else typing away on the train, whether it be packed or empty.
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With almost all new cellphones now having a memory card slot with media costs dropping drastically, and listening to music on phones becoming more popular, here’s an interesting survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into the topic of cellphone memory card usage.

Demographics

On the 13th of February 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor group employed in either the private or public sector completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 83.9% of the sample was male, 10.9% in their twenties, 38.5% in their thirties, 39.4% in their forties, 8.8% in their fifties, and 2.4% in their sixties.

A year and a half ago (summer 2006) a similar question was asked, and at that time 128 MB was the most popular size, so that’s a quite impressive factor of 8 larger.
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Google rightfully beats Yahoo! hands down for English language search, but I never seem to have too much luck with Google and Japanese. I stay away from Yahoo! Japan as I find the design extremely ugly, but this doesn’t seem to be a factor with the natives according to a survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into information gathering through search portal sites.

Demographics

Between the 31st of January and the 3rd of February 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor group employed in either public or private industry completed an internet-based questionnaire. 80.9% were male, 10.0% in their twenties, 40.0% in their thirties, 37.3% in their forties, 11.2% in their fifties, and 1.5% in their sixties.

One thing I’m not sure if Yahoo! Japan does, but it is something that Google definitely doesn’t, is to search alternative verb forms, so that if you put in the infinitive it also searches past tense, progressive, passive, and so one. That would be nice, but top of my wish list would be alternative kanji and kana alternatives for a word; for example, skin clinic could appear as 皮膚科, 皮フ科, ひふ科 or even ヒフ科, so it would be nice if I typed in just one form and the search engine matched all the variants.
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I feel RFID is greatly misunderstood, and deliberately misrepresented, by those with axes to grind regarding surveillance, as although the more usual passive type of RFID can technically be read from a few metres distance in ideal condition, it is very sensitive to interference from other metal items making random distance attacks infeasible. Just in case you are really paranoid, as pictured above, Kitty chan can protect you! To find out what the average Japanese does with their IC Chipped cards, JR Tokai Express Research Inc performed a survey on this very subject of IC Cards.

Demographics

Over the 30th and 31st of January 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor group employed in either the private or public sector completed an online survey. 78.8% were male, 9.1% in their twenties, 38.5% in their thirties, 36.1% in their forties, 11.8% in their fifties, and 4.2% in their sixties.

I have three chipped credit cards, with one of them doubling as an employee ID card, and an ICOCA train pass so I’m actually slightly below the average.
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It may seem strange to an outsider that the buzzword “Work-life balance” has become popular in Japanese industry, but with many Japanese seemingly holding colleagues more dear than their family, industry has realised that for the benefit of their employees’ mental health and well-being, promoting spending less time at work is important. With this in mind, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc looking at this very topic of work-life balance. Apparently the term was coined in the 1990s in Europe or the USA.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 19th of January 2007 330 people employed in either the public or private sector completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 80.3% of the sample was male, 10.9% in their twenties, 38.2% in their thirties, 34.8% in their forties, 13.9% in their firties, and 2.1% in their sixties.

I personally hold unions mainly responsible for issues regarding work-life balance. A recent survey from the union I have to join (well, technically I need not, but I think I’m not eligible for any overtime or flexible working hours if I did opt out) and pay 6,000 yen a month dues for (and don’t start me on how the union shop prominently sells cancer-in-a-pack to employees, not even stopping sales or turning off the fag machines for No Smoking Day) showed that overall job satisfaction was directly related to overtime hours worked, with the break-even point being 30 to 40 hours per month, if one can really describe having only half the staff dissatisfied as “break-even”. All we get from the union are messages about let’s not overwork, and pie-in-the-sky for Japan ideas like suggestions to plan all your goals at the start of the day and go home once you achieve them, and no later. If they really wanted to fix anything, they’d instruct members to work-to-rule, 40 hours overtime max per month. Oh, and the overtime figures at our office are fake anyway – there’s an extra 15 hours hidden in the counting, and they are calculated on self-reporting, not on ID card check-in and check-out at the main gate. Business trips are also recorded as 8:30 to 17:00 regardless of whether you end up getting the last shinkansen home or not.

Ah yes, we have a survey to do.
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