世論 What Japan Thinks

Here’s one of these surveys that helps explain something that does annoy me in Japan, namely how change is handed out. The survey was conducted by iShare.

Demographics

Between the 3rd and 8th of July 2009 590 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private online questionnaire. 55.8% of the sample were male, 36.3% in their twenties, 30.2% in their thirties, and 33.6% in their forties.

Two things annoy me about getting change here; I almost always get notes first, so I end up fumbling with my wallet trying to get them in while holding up the queue and the cashier hovering over me with the coins. Second, when getting a mix of 1,000 yen and 5,000 yen notes, they always put the 5,000 yen note on top, so I either have to put the notes in back to front or spend more time fumbling to put the 5,000 yen note to the back. Do any of my readers get bothered by this, or is it just me?

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The results of this survey from Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com into mobile phone costs and fees are not really that surprising, especially since a year or so ago companies were ordered to stop their free or one yen phone promotions and allow the consumer to see more clearly the true costs of a free phone.

Demographics

Between the 20th and 22nd of May 2009 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was 50:50 male and female, 2.3% in their teens, 17.7% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 20.0% in their fifties, and 20.0% aged sixty or older.

To research this story, I popped into a docomo mobile phone shop on the way home. They must have been embarrassed about it, as they only had tiny 8 point type price tags, which showed that all the spring and summer models were between 50,000 and 70,000 yen for the standard spec of 8 megapixel camera, one-seg television, electronic cash and the like. Even three revisions ago’s 18 month old phones were sitting at just under 40,000 yen, so I don’t think I’ll be upgrading my two and a half year old phone just yet!

My basic plan price is reasonable, but the unlimited packet deal at about 4,400 yen per month (on top of 2,000 yen or so basic plan) is just not justified for my current phone.
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With the economy tanking, and with many firms announcing pay freezes if not cuts, this survey conducted by iBridge Research Plus and reported on by japan.internet.com into wives and foreign exchange is rather timely.

Demographics

On the 2nd of February 2009 300 married women from the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 7.3% of the sample were in their twenties, 44.3% in their thirties, 32.0% in their forties, 13.0% in their fifties, and 3.3% in their sixties.

With perfect timing the Financial Times has a long but worth reading article on female Japanese foreign exchange investors.

I’d love to know more about the 96.4% who didn’t find full time jobs. Were they looking? How many were already employed?
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This was the question posed by goo Ranking, to see what people would want to do if they had 100 million yen in banknotes.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 23rd of November 2008 1,083 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.4% of the sample were female, 9.0% in their teens, 15.7% in their twenties, 29.1% in their thirties, 25.5% in their forties, 11.3% in their fifties, and 9.4% 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’d have to go with the money bath; I’m surprised “light cigarettes with it” didn’t feature, though, as that’s another popular image of having money to burn. I’m not sure why slapping someone in the face appears so high in the ratings, however. Does anyone recognise the reference in Japanese popular culture?
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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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