世論 What Japan Thinks

goo Ranking recently took a look at a subject that was tempted to entitle “Karaoke FAIL”, but it didn’t quite fit, and anyway I have another FAIL coming later this evening. So, the survey was into what leaves people feeling down at karaoke.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 23rd of June 2010 1,137 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 65.1% of the sample were female, 8.0% in their teens, 20.4% in their twenties, 31.2% in their thirties, 23.9% in their forties, 9.2% in their fifties, and 7.2 aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

I’ve not been to karaoke for ages and ages, but I’ve done my fair share of ruining the mood for others, judging by the list. Fiddling with the sound effects is one of my favourites, and in order to try to disguise my total inability to carry a tune I’ve occasionally done the speaking instead of singing.

Photo from gullevek on flickr.
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I haven’t been to karaoke for years, mainly due to being tone deaf and preferring to go home rather than staying up boozing until all hours! A Swiss friend of mine used to go to sing enka on the whole, and take full advantage of the all-you-can-drink offer they ran at Jumbo Karaoke by knocking back at least five pints of Asahi in two hours! To find out how the average Japanese views karaoke, DIMSDRIVE Research conducted a survey on this very topic.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 20th of December 2007 9,271 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 54.9% were female, 1.5% in their teens, 15.5% in their twenties, 36.1% in their thirties, 28.6% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 5.6% aged sixty or older.

There’s no good data to graph here, so instead let’s have a Hello Kitty Karaoke Party!

[part 1][part 2]

I haven’t been to karaoke for years, mainly due to being tone deaf and preferring to go home rather than staying up boozing until all hours! A Swiss friend of mine used to go to sing enka on the whole, and take full advantage of the all-you-can-drink offer they ran at Jumbo Karaoke by knocking back at least five pints of Asahi in two hours! To find out how the average Japanese views karaoke, DIMSDRIVE Research conducted a survey on this very topic.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 20th of December 2007 9,271 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 54.9% were female, 1.5% in their teens, 15.5% in their twenties, 36.1% in their thirties, 28.6% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 5.6% aged sixty or older.

When I once went to karaoke there was a great Japanese punk song that had nonsense English lyrics that when sung sort-of sounded like Japanese, but I never found out the name of the song. That was a pretty dull anecode, I must admit, but it’s the best I’ve got… I got rather disenchanted with the whole affair after going there with Japanese colleagues who spent their time singing 1970s ballads and anime theme songs.
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I haven’t been to karaoke for a number of years, not least due to being so tone deaf that not even the fanciest of karaoke electronic trickery can fix my singing voice. Perhaps some of my readers have, so if so you might recognise the topic of this survey reported by japan.internet.com and performed by Cross Marketing Inc into communication on the internet, with this article focusing in particular on karaoke.

Demographics

Over the 14th and 15th of November 2007 300 members of Cross Marketing’s monitor group successfully completed an internet-based private questionnaire. Each age group was split 50:50 male and female, and 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% in their fifties.

Apparently the end of the year is one of the busy times for karaoke boxes, because when work end-of-year parties finish and talk starts on the subject of the “second party”, the karaoke box is often a popular place to continue drinking. The article also notes a recently-coined word, ヒトカラ, hitokara, or going to karaoke by oneself.

I find it interesting that in Q1 only 2 out of 300 have never ever been to karaoke.
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japan.internet.com recently published a survey conducted by Cross Marketing Inc into telecommunication karaoke. That’s a bit of an ugly term, but it’s the translation my dictionary offers for 通信カラオケ, tsuushin karaoke, or karaoke machines that can connect to a server to download the latest music. Over three days in the middle of July 300 members of Cross Marketing’s monitor team who go to karaoke at least once a year replied to a closed internet questionnaire. As usual for Cross Marketing, there was a 50:50 male-female split, and 20% in each of the five age groups; 18 to 19 years old, twenties, thirties, forties and fifties.

I’ve not been to karaoke for ages and ages; when I was dating, we went quite a few times, but love is deaf as well as blind, so since we got married my wife’s told me that my singing voice is horrible; yes, I knew already that I was tone-deaf (音痴, onchi, or tone-stupid in Japanese), but I lost all confidence after being told that! A fellow foreigner friend of mine also often frequents a karaoke room, partially for the inclusive all-you-can-drink deals and partially to satisfy his love of 演歌, enka, Japanese folk-songs (sort-of anyway; read the link).
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