世論 What Japan Thinks

[part 1][part 2]

With prices of many staples having risen or threatening to rise for the first time for a good number of years, Macromill Inc decided to investigate what the average consumer thought about instant ramen and other instant noodles.

Demographics

Over the 10th and 11th of October 2007 516 members of the Macromill Monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split 50:50 male and female in each age group, with 25.0% in their twenties, 25.0% in their thirties, 25.0% in their forties, and 25.0% in the fifties.

I think I’ve only ever once or twice eaten instant noodles in Japan; most of them are loaded with prawns, beef, salt and MSG, so I stay well clear of them! Looking at Q1, the one type I do recall eating was some sort of low calorie concoction that doesn’t feature on the list. However, it seems that most families do use them regularly, and always hold a few in stock for emergencies or days when they just can’t be bothered cooking.

If you want to find out how Cup Noodles are made, you can visit the Momofuku Ando Museum situated in Ikeda near Osaka and even make your own personalised unique ramen!
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[part 1][part 2]

We’ve looked before at handsomeness, but this time Macromill Inc looked at the slightly more specific topic of men’s grooming. This report is rather detailed, so apologies in advance!

Demographics

Between the 25th and 27th of September 2007 515 male members of the Macromill Monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. Exactly 20% were aged between 15 and 19, 20% in their twenties, 20% in their thirties, 20% in their forties, and 20% in their fifties. In addition, 282 people, or 54.8%, were not married.

It does seem interesting that almost a third are concerned about sweat-related issues, although there is no follow-on question regarding what people try to do to counter this. However, Q1 in the first half of the survey indicated just under a quarter purchase deodorant, so one does wonder why the extra 5% or more don’t use it.
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[part 1][part 2]

We’ve looked before at handsomeness, but this time Macromill Inc looked at the slightly more specific topic of men’s grooming. This report is rather detailed, so apologies in advance!

Demographics

Between the 25th and 27th of September 2007 515 male members of the Macromill Monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. Exactly 20% were aged between 15 and 19, 20% in their twenties, 20% in their thirties, 20% in their forties, and 20% in their fifties. In addition, 282 people, or 54.8%, were not married.

I find Q1 a bit difficult to understand, especially for basics like shampoo. I find it difficult to believe that 20% don’t wash their hair, but perhaps it is a differentiation between just cheap no-brand no-particular-effect shampoo versus a name brand. Conversely, does only 53.7% using face soap mean the rest just splash with water, or use hand soap, or don’t have a separate hand soap and face soap? Finally, just over half using rinse is surprisingly high to me.
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One way of making Japan a cheaper country to live it is to make sure you participate in as many point cards and other loyalty schemes as possible, as many shops and restaurants offer some degree of discounts (often from 3% to 10% or more) if you sign up to their schemes. Of course, one drawback is that you end up with a bulging wallet and time-consuming scrambles looking for the correct card. Recently, Macromill Inc reported on a survey they conducted on this topic, point cards.

Demographics

Over the 13th and 14th of July 2007 516 members of the Macromill Monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split exactly 50:50 male and female in each age group, and similarly there were 25.0% in their twenties, 25.0% in their thirties, 25.0% in their forties and 25.0% in their fifties.

Note that in this survey questions Q1 and Q2, point cards include stamp cards, airline mileage cards, and other loyalty point-based systems, but exclude credit card points, which are investingated in Qs 5 to 7. However, some of the newer combined credit card and railway pass cards have schemes where you get bonus points for spending money in the railway line’s department store or other group companies, so I don’t know whether these point schemes are counted or not.

With some of the big electrical chains who have point systems offering from 10% to 20% depending on purchases, it can be definitely argued that their prices are artificially higher to fund this system, and with comparison shopping it is possible to save more money. However, in Osaka the choice for me is bascially either the huge Yodobashi Camera right beside the main station or perhaps saving 5% to 10% if I head down to Den-Den Town, taking 10 minutes in the subway then 15 minutes by foot, fighting my way through the crowds, then hoping the store still has the product in stock, takes credit cards, doesn’t have a prohibitive delivery cost, etc.
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[part 1] [part 2]

Macromill Inc recently published the results of some research it conducted into electronic money, in particular nanaco and WAON.

Demographics

Between the 9th and 10th of April 2007 1,030 members of Macromill Monitor group resident in Tokyo or the three surrounding prefectures completed a private online survey. The group was split exactly 50:50 male and female in each of the five age bands: 20.0% in their teens (between 15 and 19), 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% in their fifties.

My use of electronic money is very limited. I have a Suica, or to be correct an Icoca card, the Kansai equivalent of Suica, which holds my season ticket and also sometimes cash, although I’ve almost exclusively used it at railway ticket gates, and one time only in a cafe when I realised I hadn’t any money. Just like I was never keen on debit cards in the UK, giving away cash in advance is just not appealing to me.

My concern about the security aspect of electronic cash is not about personal loss or skimming-like attacks, but the fundamentals such as hackers working out how to add cash to a card. From what I know of RFID security it is actually theoretically straightforward to hack out passwords and keys from certain smart cards through side-channel attacks, but I don’t know what counter-measures have been taken by the manufacturers, or what protection there is on mobile-phone applications. Actually, this is the vague area where I work, so I better not speculate out loud in case my boss is listening…
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[part 1] [part 2]

Macromill Inc recently published the results of some research it conducted into electronic money, in particular nanaco and WAON.

Demographics

Between the 9th and 10th of April 2007 1,030 members of Macromill Monitor group resident in Tokyo or the three surrounding prefectures completed a private online survey. The group was split exactly 50:50 male and female in each of the five age bands: 20.0% in their teens (between 15 and 19), 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% in their fifties.

Even though I have quite an interest in electronic money, I’d only vaguely heard of nanaco, and never of WAON, even though I often shop in their supermarkets. Perhaps the initial launch is limited to the Tokyo area, or perhaps my rather run-down supermarket in the suburbs is way down in the priority list!
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Excuse the rather clumsy headline, but Macromill recently interviewed 309 members of their internet research monitor group who currently worked as either private or public employees and expressed a wish to enter or re-enter further education as mature students.

Demographics

Between the 4th and 5th of April 2007 309 people completed a private online questionnaire; 66.0% were male, 35.6% in their twenties, 42.1% in their thirties, 18.8% in their forties, and 3.6% in their fifties. All of them were considering entering a Japanese university as an under-graduate or post-graduate within the next five years.

In addition, 13.9% were married with no children, 27.8% married with children, 52.8% were single with no children, 0.6% were single, with children, but didn’t need to support them, and 1.3% were married with children that didn’t need to be supported. Regarding education levels, 11.0% had post-graduate qualifications, 57.6% had graduated from university, 14.2% attended college, 16.2% attended up to high school, 0.3% to middle school, and 0.6% didn’t answer.

Sadly, this survey does not highlight those wishing to do MBAs. Additionally, a number of UK and USA universities offering distance learning MBA courses in conjuction with Japanese institutions, but whether or not these would be counted as Japanese courses for the sake of this survey is not clear.
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Recently, Macromill Inc. published the results of a survey into Saint Valentine’s Day. They interviewed 515 female company employees aged between 20 and 39 from their internet monitor group over two days towards the end of January this year. In the sample 57 women or 11.1% were aged between 20 and 24, 169 or 32.8% between 25 and 30, 182 or 35.3% between 30 and 34, and 107 or 20.8% between 35 and 39.

In Japan, Saint Valentine’s Day actually incorporates two different celebrations. Before I mention them, note that this day is just for women to give stuff to men; we get our chance next month, on White Day, the 14th of March. One celebration is, of course, the one we all know in the west, giving a present to your object of affection. The second is “male appreciation day”, where 義理チョコ, giri chocolates, are given to men, usually work colleagues, in theory given freely as an expression of thanks, but the word “giri” can be translated as “obligatory”, indicating that most female employees have to pay for chocolates for all the men in the office. Mari Kanazawa covers this issue today in her own inimitable style, as does Shari at My So-Called Japanese Life.

At work there’s quite a fair haul of goodies – there is the standard chocolates (Royce, from our company shop), then some Zunda beans Pretz (I think they are a Valentine gift anyway!), and a huge selection of hand-made cakes by one of my colleague’s wife, whose hobby is making cakes for us. I had a lovely cherry sponge, done to the quality (including the obligatory double-wrapping) of commercial cakes.
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In addition to the the question posed in the headline, I’d like to ask my Tokyo-based readers if your Japanese friends have tried taking you there, and what did they want to take you to there?

I discovered today another new-to-me web site, but this time it’s of a rather prominent research company, Macromill Inc. They’ve got some interesting opinion poll results on their site, but one that caught my eye was this one on the image of the towns within Tokyo. Over one day at the end of September last year they interviewed 1,032 people from their online monitor group, evenly split 516 male and 516 female, and each sex also evenly split with 129 people in each age band from between 20 and 29, 30 to 39, 40 to 49, and 50 years or older.

This is a slightly old survey, and since I am not a Tokyo expert by any long shot, I’ll skip a full translation (although give me a shout if you would like to see more!) and instead focus on the most relevant portion for my readers, a couple of images related to foreigners. Note that although the Japanese word 外国人, gaikokujin, means anyone from overseas, it is usually taken as referring to non-Asian foreigners. (Is it? I and many other English-speaking foreigners often assert this, but is there any evidence to support or disprove this supposition?)

Also note that Q1 specifically mentions foreigner friends, so it is presumably not just where they would recommend the average tourist should go. On the other hand, the respondent may be thinking of a friend from abroad coming to Tokyo for the first time, so perhaps it is the tourist spots that they are thinking of?
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