During March 2013 2,000 people were chosen by unspecified means to answer a PC internet-based questionnaire. The sample was 50:50 male and female, and each age band from twenties to sixties contained 200 males and 200 females.
A recent Japan Times editorial explained the situation in more detail; basically there are three categories of non-presecription drugs. The first category is for drugs that can only be sold in pharmacies, and the second and third in pharmacies or other stores with a registered sales assistant, who is obliged to provide information regarding side-effects, etc. As can be seen in Q2, the categories are very, very broad. Read the rest of this entry »
A recent survey from iShare looked at switch OTC medicines, the term used to refer to medicines that used to be only available on prescription, but have now switched to being available Over The Counter in pharmacies.
Demographics
Between the 24th and 28th of February 2011 641 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.9% of the sample were male, 28.4% in their twenties, 32.6% in their thirties, and 39.0% in their forties.
Recently, the first medicine to become a Switch OTC medicine is loxoprofen sodium, a non-steroid anit-inflammatory drug, now manufactured and sold by Daiichi Mitsui Health Care as Loxonin S. Today I saw for the first time an advert for it, a sticker on a train door; having this survey in mind I actually paid attention for once! According to the advert below, it is being promoted for headaches and period pains.
On the 1st of June last year the law in Japan was changed to allow certain non-prescription drugs to be sold over the internet; this recent survey from iBridge Research Plus, reported on by japan.internet.com, looked at the sale of medical products, focusing on internet purchases.
Demographics
On the 12th of April 2010 300 members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were male, 13.7% in their twenties, 31.3% in their thirties, 32.0% in their forties, 16.0% in their fifties, and 7.0% in their sixties.
Here’s one of these surveys which teaches me something new about Japan; this time it was a survey from Research Plus, reported on by japan.internet.com, into selling medical goods over the internet.
Demographics
On the 5th of December 2008 300 members of the Research Plus monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 16.3% in their twenties, 38.0% in their thirties, 29.7% in their forties, 13.3% in their fifties, and 2.7% in their sixties.
In September of this year it was decided that from 2009 it will be possible to buy over the internet such over-the-counter medicines as anti-flatulence pills and vitamins, but as can be seen in Q2SQ, a lot of other seemingly innocent drugs are still not sellable. Read the rest of this entry »
japan.internet.com recently reported on a survey conducted by Dentsu Innovation Institute into selling over-the-counter medicines on the internet. The full report is available as a PDF here.
A recent survey from iShare looked at 
Here’s one of these surveys which teaches me something new about Japan; this time it was a survey from Research Plus, reported on by japan.internet.com, into 
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