世論 What Japan Thinks

Earlier this month iShare surveyed members of their CLUB BBQ service to find out mainly about people’s attitude to children and mobiles, but there were also additional questions regarding people’s partners and mobiles. This report, however, only featured three results, but I’d love to get hold of the full set of results so I could translate it! They got 880 replies to their private internet-based survey, with 73% of the sample size being male. The ages of the respondents were between 30 and 50.

It may be instructive to cross-reference these results with the other survey I have just presented on the same subject.
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ITmedia recently published a short summary of an internet-based survey carried out by Yahoo! Research amongst 545 mothers of children due to start Primary School (in Japan, this means children aged six) this Spring regarding their children’s safety. The percentages by sex of these soon-to-start-school children were 52.1% boys and 47.9% girls.

A figure of 17.6% of those people polled said that they intend to very soon give their children a mobile phone or pager. 0.6% already made their children carry one, and 81.6% said they had no plans to do so.

As for the reasons for giving their children phones, the almost unanimous top reason at 95% was for safety. Almost seven in ten said it was in order to know where their children were, and 44% saying it was to keep track of them on their return home. Only one in five said it was to know when to go and meet their children when it was time to return from normal school or extra cram school. Next, at just 9%, was in order to facilitate parent-child communication.

As a bonus question, they also asked what colour of satchel, a particularly Japanese custom for all new entrants to school, they planned to buy. Traditionally, boys get black and girls get red ones.

Q: What colour of satchel do you plan to buy for your child newly entering school?

Colour	Percentage
Black	24.8%
Red	23.7%
Pink	18.1%
Navy blue	13.3%
Green	2.6%

infoPLANT recently carried out a survey to find out what people do with their mobiles (other than phone calls and mail, of course) and what they want their next mobile to do. By means of an option placed within the public iMode service menus for twelve days in the middle of December they got 7,905 respondents to their questions, 37% male. More detailed demographics were not available.

In my case, the calculator feature is about the only one I use with any degree of frequency, although I am rather controlled by my wife’s phone’s alarm and schedule! I do have a number of ring tones downloaded, but as my phone is in manner mode nearly all the time, that probably doesn’t count. For my next phone, the one feature I perhaps want most of all would be a smoother input method, but not voice-based, as that would be far too embarrassing on the train!

It would be interesting to see how these figures compared with a similar survey performed in Europe or the USA.
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In early December NEPRO Japan looked at the usage of video-enabled mobile phone calls amongst the Japanese mobile-phone using population. They surveyed 4,575 people across the country, 59% female, and 42% in their twenties. The participants were self-selected by means of a link available for just one day from the iMode, Vodafone live! and EZweb service provider’s portal web site.

This survey is self-selecting, so the accuracy is somewhat suspect. For iMode users, most of DoCoMo’s new sales are of phones with video calling features, and users of these new 3G phones tend to choose fixed price plans, so use iMode more, thus are more likely to find these surveys, biasing the survey towards the heavy user, I suspect.

Personally speaking, my current phone has no video calling facility, and I have no real desire to use the feature even if available, as mail is usually sufficient, and it’s a bit embarrassing, plus I don’t know what happens about sound quality if you have to hold the phone twenty or thirty centimetres away from your face. Perhaps a headset becomes necessary for proper use, therefore since BluTooth has only now just started appearing in a significant number of phones we may see an increase in users this year?
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infoPLANT conducted a survey regarding mobile phone game usage in Japan amongst 8,984 users of the DoCoMo iMode sevice, by offering the survey through the iMode menuing system. The questionnaire was available for a week in mid-November, and of the 8,984 respondents, 63.5% were female.

infoPLANT’s survey methods obviously indicate that they will most likely result in an over-representation of the heavy user demographic, but regardless this still presents an interesting snapshot on how some people use their mobile phones. One could argue that since a previous survey showed the majority of people were on unlimited usage plans (although the methodology of that survey was probably flawed), these consumers could more easily budget for pay games, and download them without worrying about additional transmission costs over and above the basic fee. Also note that almost all mobile phones come with built-in games, not just Tetris clones and the like, but pretty good quality commercial-grade RPGs and pet simulators. As for my own phone, I have a nice golf game, but I beat that and quit, and the shoot-em-up is no fun. I once downloaded a trial version of a pay-for game, but it took a long, long time and the game play was rather lacking, so basically I haven’t played any games at all this year.
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ITMedia reported that Push To Talk, the new service being geared up for launch right now by DoCoMo in their new 902i range, is still completely unknown to almost four in five mobile phone users. Push To Talk is a walkie-talkie-like service, just press the button and talk, sending your voice over the IP network, so it is VoIP rather than a traditional call. However, their pricing is currently set to a rather high 5 yen per push, or a more reasonable 1,000 yen per month for unlimited access. But, as we will see later, less than a quarter of mobile phone users spend more than three minutes per day talking, and only just over a tenth feel they don’t talk enough.

Infoplant just released a survey (not yet available on their web site – it seems to have been done for “Keitai Best” magazine) carried out at the end of October amongst just 400 internet users (200 of each sex) aged 15 and above who owned mobile phones. (Presumably they used their internet monitor group and chose a demographically accurate cross-section, so the figures can be trusted.)

First, regarding Push To Talk, not even 10% were familiar with the features of the service, and just under 80% had not even heard of the term. However, when the main features were explained, about 60% said they would like to use it, with the number of women wanting to use it being 9 percentage points higher.

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NEPRO IT co. ltd. recently performed a survey on the number of mobile phones people owned. The self-selecting prize draw survey was carried out on iMode, EZweb and Vodafone live! public web sites. 4,283 people, 60% female, replied to the survey carried out from the morning of October 6th to late into the night of the same day. 6% were 19 or under, 41% were 20 to 29, 38% were 30 to 39, and 15% 40 or older.

Q1: How many mobile phones are registered in your name? (Sample size=4,283)

One	64%
Two	17%
Three or more	5%
I have a phone but am not responsible for it (Company phone or other in family pays bill?)	12%
I don’t have a phone (How did they access the site then?)	1%
No answer	1%

Q2: Why do you have multiple phones registered in your name? (Sample size=4,283)

I only have one phone!	66%
Family use phones	16%
To keep private and business matters separate	4%
In case I cannot get a signal with the other	2%
I want to use different features in the phones	2%
To separate incoming and outgoing usage	1%
I want to use different designs or shapes	1%
Other reasons	10%

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NTT DoCoMo recently carried out a survey of users of mobile phones with electronic wallet functionality to see how, or even if, they were being used. Note when reading this survey that first NTT DoCoMo has heavily invested in the electronic money infrastructure and almost all of their new models come with this feature built-in. For their FOMA range (3G phones), it is a compulsory feature, and with sales figures showing over 80% of new and upgrading customers are choosing these models, NTT have a vested interest in the success of electronic wallets, as they no doubt get a transaction fee for every electronic money purchase. This may or may not have influenced the outcome of the survey. However, if accurate, it shows a pretty high degree of market penetration. UPDATE: If only I’d posted this right after I translated it last week, I could have beaten the BBC on this story!

Although launched only last July, in just one year and two months (September 3rd) DoCoMo reached 6 million electronic money-capabile phones sold, and by the first of October there were about 25,000 shops nationwide and 6,000 vending machines equipped with readers.

In this survey, 4,000 users of mobile phones with the DoCoMo おサイフケータイ (osaifu keitai, Mobile Wallet) service functionality built-in were interviewed, 2,200 male, 1,800 female, and their answers are as follows.

Q: Have you used the Mobile Wallet functionality of your phone?

	Using it	Used to use it, but stopped	Not used it
All	28%	3%	69%
Up to 19 years old	18%	4%	78%
20 to 29 years old	27%	4%	69%
30 to 39 years old	32%	3%	65%
40 to 49 years old	29%	3%	68%
Over 50 years old	21%	2%	77%

This 28% represents 1,108 people, and if this is scaled up to cover all people owning electronic-money ready DoCoMo phones, about 1.82 million people are using this service.

Q: How often do you use your Mobile Wallet? (Sample size=1,108)

Over thrice a day	6%
About once a day	12%
About five times a week	5%
About thrice a week	15%
About once a week	24%
About once every two weeks	11%
About once a month	17%
Hardly ever use it	10%

Compared with the same question asked in May, the percentage using the service once a day or more has increased from 13% to 18%.

Q: Where do you use your Mobile Wallet? (Sample size=1,108, multiple answer)

Convenience store	84%
Rental shop	25%
Vending machine	24%
Airport	22%
Electrical retailer	18%
Pharmacist	16%
Book or CD shop	15%
Cafe	15%
Fast food store	14%
Bar or pub	12%
Family Restaurant	11%

Note that at some places, like at airports, the Mobile Wallet is not used as money, but as a member’s card for saving points, etc. When you buy a plane ticket from ANA online, you can get an email sent to your mobile phone that allows you to access an application that records a transaction identifier in the IC card of the wallet, so ticket collection and check-in can be performed simultaneously and effortlessly.

Q: How satisfied are you with your Mobile Wallet service? (Sample size=1,108)

Extremely satisfied	13%
Satisfied	69%
Dissatisfied	19%

SQ: If extremely satisfied or satisfied, will you buy a Mobile Wallet capable phone next time you change phones? (Sample size=902)

Definitely want to buy	47%
Want to buy	52%
Don’t want to buy	1%

Q: What do you like about using your Mobile Wallet? (Sample size=1,108)

Just hold over reader to use	73%
Speedy purchasing	60%
No fiddling with a wallet	46%
Earn points	21%
Can refill via iMode	20%
Can see remaining cash on display	17%
It’s OK not to bring a wallet	14%
Can use for lots of services	14%
Less stuff in my wallet	12%

Q: What services would you like to use in the future? (Sample size=4,000)

Electronic money	58%
Point card	56%
Rail pass	35%
Cinema ticket	20%
Cash card	18%
Home key	15%
Concert ticket	8%
Theme park passport	8%

iShare Inc have once again surveyed CLUB BBQ members, this time to find out about shopping trends on their mobiles. They got 2,270 valid responses to their survey, carried out at the start of September. 60.6% of their respondents were male.

iShare discovered that a lot of people did their shopping from the comfort of their own homes, so dubbed them “Couch Keitais (mobiles)”, which might be rendered in English as “immobile phoners”. On with the figures; note that the figures in most of the tables below have been reported with no decimal places.

First of all, only 9.1% of the survey group (207 respondents) have bought mail-order goods via their mobiles. However, the most popular by far place for shopping was sitting on the sofa at home, with 44.5% of the 207 (92 people) reporting that as where they make their purchases. Next was while on the move, with only 23.1% selecting that.

When asked why they use a particular mobile phone shopping site, the most popular reason, with 34.2% of shoppers choosing it, was that because it’s the same site as usually used from a PC. Conversely, given the choice between a PC site and a sister mobile-based site, 42.2% (of everyone or just mobile shoppers?) would choose to continue using the PC.

I wonder if the full report asks what people think about using a portable PC (or even PDA-sized) and wireless LAN instead?

Now to some of the numbers that have been quoted in detail.

Q: For those of you who have used a shopping site from your mobile, are you on a flat-fee mobile internet use plan?

Yes	43%
No	57%

Q: For those of you who have not used a shopping site from your mobile, are you on a flat-fee mobile internet use plan?

Yes	16%
No	84%

Q: For those of you who have used a shopping site from your mobile, what have you bought?

Clothes	10%
Food	12%
Books	28%
Tickets	21%
Other	30%

“Others” in the last two tables include primarily CDs and DVDs.

This was a multiple answer question, but they have presented the results as a percentage. You have to pay money to find out the real figures…

Q: For those of you who have not used a shopping site from your mobile, what might you like to buy?

Clothes	3%
Food	5%
Books	35%
Tickets	46%
Other	12%

Q: When buying goods from your mobile, how did you pay for goods? If you’ve not shopped how would you want to pay? (Single answer)

	Net Shoppers	Not net shoppers
Together with phone bill	8.9%	31.6%
Credit card	43.8%	26.6%
Convenience store	12.5%	19.0%
Bank transfer	12.5%	8.1%
Others	5.2%	2.8%

A new research company to me, Rakuten Research, carried out this recent survey on the use of mobile contents and services, the 18th time they’ve carried it out, but the first time I’ve heard of it!

The survey was carried out at the start of this month amongst Rakuten Research’s monitor group; 2,460 people were selected, almost exactly 50:50 of each sex, with 2,074 of them (86.4%) being mobile phone users from the four main networks, DoCoMo, au, VodaFone and TU-KA. Unless otherwise noted, the sample size for questions are these 2,074 mobile phone users. The main areas of the survey was to find out about the use of “full browsers”, meaning mobile phone browsers that can view PC-based contents, the views on mobile phone information leakage, and communications with eldery parents. However, they have split the results reporting into two articles, so this report is about full browers only. Note that I have translated another survey regarding full browsers.

Q1: Have you used a full browser on your mobile?

All (N=2,074)	9.5%
Male (N=1,042)	12.5%
Female (N=1,032)	6.6%

Q2: For those answering yes to Q1, within the last month, what sorts of web sites have you accessed with the full browser? (Sample size=202, multiple answer)

Search or portal site	46.0%
News or general info site	37.1%
Traffic, maps or travel	26.7%
Shopping	21.8%
Blog	19.8%
Bulletin board	18.3%
Auction	17.8%
Single-function service (dictionary, translation, etc)	10.4%
Other	7.9%

Q3: For those answering yes to Q1, after using the full browser, how has your frequency of access to mobile phone-targetted sites changed? (Sample size=202)

Hardly ever access previously-used mobile sites	35.1%
Frequency of access of mobile sites has decreased	13.4%
Frequency of access of mobile sites has not changed	42.1%
Frequency of access of mobile sites has increased	9.4%

Q4: For those answering yes to Q1, after using the full browser, how has your frequency of access to mobile phone-targetted pay sites changed? (Sample size=202)

Now never access previously-used paid-for mobile contents	47.0%
Amount spend on paid-for mobile contents has decreased	15.3%
Amount spend on paid-for mobile contents has not changed	30.2%
Amount spend on paid-for mobile contents has increased	7.4%

Q5: What issues might crop up (or have cropped up) as a result of using a full browser? (Sample size=2,074, multiple answer)

Packet charge increase	60.8%
Phone screen size too small	44.3%
Corrupted character encodings or screen layout broken	28.1%
Few usable features	25.9%
Worry about viruses or accessing dodgy sites	25.5%
Response from web servers slow	25.3%
Poor usability	20.6%
Cannot view Javascript or Flash-based high-spec sites	15.9%
Others	2.4%
No particular problems or worries	19.2%

Finally, the trends of usage patterns of various major features of mobile phones were investigated. For each of the main functions of the phone, each respondent was asked if they had used it within the last month. Looking back at the historical data the following trends can be seen:

• Picture mail usage has increased from 36.4% to 40.5% in the last two months
• Bar code and QR Code scans are up from 17.6% to 21.5%
• Infrared usage also up from 14.4% to 16.6%
• Usage of all other features up, but none very significantly
• However, electronic money feature usage is still less than 2%