世論 What Japan Thinks

Having looked recently at the mobile market situation after one year of mobile number portability, here we look at the logical extension to this service in a report published by japan.internet.com on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into PC and mobile phone email.

Demographics

On the 13th of November 2007 331 members of JR Tokai Express Research’s online monitor group employed in either the public or private sector (JR Tokai Express Research seems to have recently given up on the other demographics) successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 83.1% were male, 8.8% in their twenties, 42.0% in their thirties, 36.6% in their forties, 10.6% in their fifties, and 2.1% in their sixties.

Most internet service providers offer mail forwarding services, but if you change providers you need to keep paying the old provider a small fee to cover the old address. However, long ago I moved my main private address to one provided by PoBox.com. For a small fee, about $50 every three years I think, they maintain an address that I can forward whereever I want. However, this won’t work for mobile phone email. However, looking at the results for Q1SQ1, it looks like I am the only person willing to pay!
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I couldn’t do this web site without Jim Breen’s WWWJDIC close at hand to help me out whenever I get stuck. I can’t remember the last time I actually picked up a paper dictionary, although my Canon Wordtank portable electronic dictionary also sees a lot of action. I’ve got a translation tool at the office, but it’s so hefty it’s impractical to use for single word look up. To find out what the average Japanese person does, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into portable electronic dictionaries.

Demographics

On the 14th of November 2007 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor pool employed in either public or private enterprises successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 82.7% of the sample was male, 8.2% in their twenties, 38.8% in their thirties, 39.1% in their forties, 10.9% in their fifties, and 3.0% in their sixties.

Talking of dictionaries, perhaps one of the best Japanese-English ones (especially if you already have a DS) is the Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten DS pictured above, as you get full pen input for a start, a feature found in none bar the most expensive specialised portable electronic dictionaries.
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It’s been a while since I last looked at P2P (Peer-to-Peer) software; although it is still a big issue in Europe and the USA with many organised piracy rings and individuals getting their collars felt for illegal file-sharing, what is the current situation in Japan, where government workers seem to have perfected the fine art of losing secret information through ill-configured file-sharing software? To find out some of the answers, japan.internet.com presented the results of a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into the use of Winny and other P2P filesharing software.

Demographics

On the 13th of November 2007 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research Inc’s online monitor pool employed in the private or public sector successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 7.9% of the sample were in their twenties, 40.0% in their thirties, 34.8% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 4.5% in their sixties. The split of the sexes is not reported, but recent surveys by JR Tokai Express Research with samples taken from employed people have had around 82% male and 18% female respondents.

In Q1SQ3, I don’t know if the worry about infringing copyright is from the point of view of not wanting to deprive artists, or if it is due to a fear of being caught doing it, although the wording suggests its the stealing aspect that was considered when answering, not the subsequent chance of being arrested for possession.

In addition, only 3.4% complained about their connection speed, because as another recent survey shows, the vast majority of Japanese have fat pipes.
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japan.internet.com recently reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into 2007′s web trends. Ahh, the first “… of the year” survey for 2007.

Demographics

On the 9th of November 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor group who were employed in private or public industry successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 80.9% of the sample was male, 10.9% in their twenties, 43.0% in their thirties, 33.0% in their forties, 10.0% in their fifties, and 3.0% in their sixties.

The only buzzword that was presented translated into Japanese is “wisdom of the crowds”, becoming 集合知, shuugouchi, although that did very little to aid understanding. In Q2, only about a sixth claim not to know what ubiquitous is, an awareness I doubt native English speakers could duplicate! That figure does seem rather fishy to me, or perhaps the question was framed by presenting a short Japanese explanation of the term.
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Well, it’s not really a competition of one against the other, but instead a cross-reference of awareness of Sudoku amongst console and computer gamers. japan.internet.com recently reported on a survey by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into sudoku.

Demographics

On the 26th of October 2007 331 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor group employed in either the public or private sector completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 81.0% of the sample was male, 14.2% in their twenties, 37.8% in their thirties, 34.4% in their forties, 12.1% in their fifties, and 1.5% in their sixties.

This survey doesn’t use sudoko, however, as the primary name for the puzzle; that seems to be ナンプレ, nanpure, an abbreviation of number place, or so my dictionary tells me.

If you want to get hold of some sudoku puzzles, one cheap way in Japan is to go to Daiso, the big 100 yen chain store, and pick up one or more of the eight volumes they have on sale, each with over 100 puzzles inside. The books also have below the puzzles small bits of trivia; one of my volumes has proverbs, the other four-character kanji phrases.

Oh, and today I received a prize after doing the Sudoku in my wife’s newspaper – it was just a boring old eco bag, however.
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One of the strong images, or is it a stereotype, of Japanese businessmen, and one of the first points of etiquette many foreigners learn before coming to Japan, is the exchanging of business cards. To find out the truth behind this image, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into business card management tools.

Demographics

On the 23th of October 2007 331 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor group employed in either the private or public sectors successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 82.2% of the sample was male, 11.8% were in their twenties, 42.0% in their thirties, 35.6% in their forties, 8.5% in their fifties, and 2.1% in their sixties.

This is one case where the makeup of the JR Tokai Express monitor pool may bias the results. As one of their main recruiting grounds is people riding the shinkansen, and replying to questionnaires awards points that can be exchanged for discounts on shinkansen tickets, they do attract frequent business travellers, and these travellers may be more likely to be sales people, thus more prone to be in situations where exchanging business cards is required.
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As most Apple and iPhone watchers are aware, shortly after releasing the iPhone at $600 they dropped the price to $400, although they did give refund vouchers to many customers. The press thought little of it, although I did not see any statistics to suggest how the average US resident felt. To find out what the average Japanese person felt looking in from the outside, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into Apple’s brand image, and in this article focusing on the iPhone pricing.

Demographics

On the 25th of October 2007 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor panel employed in either the public or private sectores completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 81.8% of the sample was male, 9.4% were in their twenties, 40.9% in their thirties, 37.9% in their forties, 9.1% in their fifties, and 2.7% in their sixties.

As I have no intention of purchasing an iPhone myself, I can’t say I really felt much about their strategy, and given how many fanboys Apple seems to have, I couldn’t really understand the need to cut the price so early.
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With Apple’s iPod touch being launched in Japan at the start of this month, October, (although the official Apple Store Japan web site seems to suggest there is a 7 to 10 day lead time for orders) japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into the iPod touch.

Demographics

On the 15th of October 2007 330 members of JR Tokai Express Research’s online monitor panel successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 83.0% of the sample was male, 11.5% in their twenties, 34.5% in their thirties, 37.0% in their forties, 14.2% in their fifties, and 2.7% in their sixties.

A recent survey suggested that 40% wanted to buy an iPod touch, but given the figures below, not many have yet. The exact reasons for this might make for an interesting topic at a later date. In addition, now over 71% want an iPod touch (curiously enough, a greater percentage than those who know of it, which makes me a bit suspicious of the accuracy of this report), although the previous survey asked if they want to buy, this one just asked if they wanted.
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The provision of public wireless internet is Japan is pretty terrible. I’ve personally only tried a few times, but either I got no signal or I couldn’t get my hardware configured correctly. One place I’m very surprised that it’s not installed is on the Shinkansen, the Bullet Train. Their latest N700 series now has laptop power plugs on most of the seats, but sadly they chose not to include either wired or wireless internet connections even though mobile phone service is supported on even the older models of trains. So, recently japan.internet.com published the results of a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc (part of the same group that operates the wireless-free Shinkansens) into public wireless LANs.

Demographics

On the 20th of September 2007 334 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor panel who were employed in either the public or the private sector completed an internet-based questionnaire. 84.1% of the sample was male, 13.2% in their twenties, 35.3% in their thirties, 37.1% in their forties, 12.6% in their fifties, and 1.8% in their sixties.

One other reason, perhaps, that there is not as strong a demand for wireless is that you can get high-speed mobile phone-based access from companies such as EMobile, with their offering of unlimited 3.6 Mbps at a fixed price of just 4,980 yen per month. I’m typing this up in a hotel in Los Angeles that has free wireless in all the rooms and all the public areas, yet when I stayed in a relatively posh hotel in central Osaka a couple of months ago I couldn’t get a signal at all, and there was no mention of wired or wireless service in the hotel information booklet.

Note that this survey covers services in all public areas from stations to hotels via restaurants and cafes. Deliberately leeching off a wide-open domestic router probably doesn’t count!
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I’ve looked before at which Office suite Japanese people use, so the basic figures below will perhaps not be so new to my readers, but perhaps there is some new information that can be gleaned from this recent survey reported by japan.internet.com and conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc on the matter of desktop applications in the corporate environment.

Demographics

On the 25th of September 2007 331 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor panel employed in the public or private sector completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 84.9% of the sample was male, 11.8% in their twenties, 34.7% in theor thirties, 39.3% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 1.5% in their sixties.

Of the product categories listed in Q1, I use Microsoft-only for all categories bar the very occasional FileMaker database and I use Notepad2 for my text-based editing needs.
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