世論 What Japan Thinks

Thanks to legislation in the last couple of years, the rates of interest for personal unsecured loans have dropped from around 27% to a much lower but still outrageously expensive 10% to 19%. To see how these and other changes have affected consumer opinions, MyVoice conducted a survey into personal loans, their fifth annual survey, although I haven’t translated any of the previous ones.

Demographics

Over the first five days of April 2008 14,989 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 1% in their teens, 14% in their twenties, 38% in their thirties, 30% in their forties, and 17% aged fifty or older.

Here, personal loan is defined as covering consumer credit, “cashing” or cash advances from credit companies (I think that includes cash withdrawls from a credit card) that are paid back in installments, and loans from joint ventures between consumer credit companies and banks. Bank-only loans are not covered.

I personally view these loan companies as gateway drugs to the loansharks; even with the legislation to reduce the interest rates and to require a wealth warning about maintaining a proper balance between income and outgoings the companies are still notorious for high-pressure sales and debt collection tactics, taking advantage of the average consumer’s reluctance to approach a third party for help with debt issues. Persistant rumours of association with the Yakuza hang around many companies despite official statements to the contrary.

For their part, Aiful were responsible for inflicting chihuahuas on too many people with even less money than sense.
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The best way to save money before payday, or any other day of the month, is of course to read Nihon Hacks, but just in case you can’t get enough ideas from there, here is goo Ranking’s look at top ways to economise before payday.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 24th of December 2007 1,094 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private online questionnaire. 45.6% of the sample was male, 8.8% were in their teens, 15.6% in their twenties, 29.1% in their thirties, 26.8% in their forties, 10.7% in their fifties, and 9.0% 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.

For some reason, Google didn’t properly index last November’s story on tightfisted techniques, so hopefully this link will give Google a kick in the right direction! Actually, I don’t think I do any of the below - if I run out of cash I just use my credit card more…
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With the end of the year coming up and perhaps people’s wallets looking a little bare, let’s look back on the year with goo Ranking and see what men spent too much cash on and what women spent too much cash on

Demographics

I’ve managed to find demographics for these ranking surveys! Between the 21st and 22nd of November 2007 1,101 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 49.3% were male, 6.2% in their teens, 15.4% in their twenties, 30.2% in their thirties, 27.1% in their forties, 11.0% in their fifties, and 10.3% aged sixty or older.

Of course, the other survey I’d love to see is what people thought their spouses had spent far too much cash on this year!
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With the recent news about DoCoMo and au by KDDI cutting monthly costs but increasing handset prices, japan.internet.com reported on a timely survey conducted by Cross Marketing Inc into mobile phone pricing.

Demographics

Over the 3rd and 4th of October 2007 330 mobile phone using members of Cross Marketing’s online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample 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 in fifties.

Note that in Q1 the price is for the handset only, not all the accessories too. I paid about 8,000 yen for my last one, but I got a company discount. I feel too that the basic monthly fee is quite high, although lots of discounts get applied to the price. However, due to the multiple discount schemes, separate charges for services, etc, the basic plan fee always stands out as just about the biggest number on my bills.
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I hesitate to post this survey as I already get about one dud trackback per day (fortunately eaten by Spam Karma) from a couple of dodgy MFA (Made For Adsense) RSS scrapers from articles on the topic of reducing phone bills, but I will place my faith in the power of karma! So, here goes with a report from MyVoice on the subject of mobile phone bills.

Demographics

Over the first five days of September 2007 13,789 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 2% in their teens, 18% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 27% in their forties, and 14% in their fifties.

I used to have the DoCoMo Packet Back discount, but I didn’t use enough packets to make it worthwhile so I cancelled it. Wifey has the all-you-can-eat deal, and despite prodding, she is not using it enough to get her money’s worth out of it; in fact she ended up spending more money buying MP3 ringtones, 100 yen for a thirty-second clip! I’ll have to search out software that allows you to import audio from SD cards so I can rip music myself.
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Following on from yesterday’s post showing us that the best way of getting rich quick is the lottery, here’s a survey from goo Ranking about where people keep their lottery tickets. As usual for these ranking surveys, there is no demographic information and the rank for each choice is expressed as a percentage of the votes for the top answer. The survey was conducted towards the end of August.

Don’t ask me why people put their tickets in the fridge, but if anyone else knows, please leave me a message.
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As part of DIMSDRIVE Research’s 94th Ranking Survey, they asked members of their monitor group to tell them the best way to get rich quick. This survey used a new to me kanji expression, 一攫千金, ikkaku senkin, meaning, as you might guess from the title of this post, get rich quick.

Not surprisingly, number one by a long, long way is the tax on the stupid, the lottery. Share dealing’s rating no doubt hasn’t been helped by the ongoing recession and the livedoor incident.
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japan.internet.com, in conjuction with JR Tokai Express Research, looked at the use of affiliate schemes by bloggers and web page maintainers. They surveyed 330 people employed in public or private businesses; 86.1% of the sample was male, 10.6% were in their twenties, 33.3% in their thirties, 38.2% in their forties, 15.2% in their fifties, and 2.7% in their sixties. Note that perhaps people who are ranking in vast sums of money from blogging wouldn’t be wasting their time filling in surveys for the chance of a few yen off a Green Car seat!

The survey did not mention how “affiliate” was defined; obviously sponsored links like with Amazon Associates would fall under this category, but as to whether AdSense (click that button on the left to find out more!) is also included, this survey does not clarify. Just for the sake of disclosure, at the rate I’m going at, my target for the year is in the 5,000 to 10,000 yen range (yes, just one hundred bucks!) although I had a bumper month last month where I managed to raise more than my hosting fee!
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