世論 What Japan Thinks

In Japan I’ve been to a number of UNESCO World Heritage sites – the Hiroshima Genbaku Dome (the dome itself is a bit of a disappointment), old Kyoto and Nara, Himeji Castle and I think Koyasan, which falls into the Kii mountains heritage zone. To find out that the average Japanese person feels about these sites, MyVoice performd a survey on this topic of Japan’s World Heritage sites.

Demographics

Over the first five days of October 2007 17,163 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 2% in their teens, 17% in their twenties, 40% in their thirties, 25% in their forties, and 16% in their fifties.

The company that I work for every year produces a calendar with excellent photographs of World Heritage sites; back when I worked in Scotland we got a whole box of them free to distribute to business contacts and ourselves, but now in Japan we have to pay for them, but regardless, every year I try to send one back to the parents. At least they are rather cheap with the postage usually costing more than the calendar and mailing tube.

Without resorting to the web, I think I could only name three Scottish sites – Edinburgh Old and New Town, New Lanark, and I think St Kilda. Checking it out further, the fourth Scottish site is Neolithic Orkney, which I had a suspicion about. In Q2, I’ve definitely visited more than 10 World Heritage sites, although I couldn’t list them of the top of my head. By tracing my trips to Europe, though, I could name up to 20 locations where surely the majority of them must be listed! Similarly, the answer on naming 30 world sites; give me enough chances to give wrong answers and I could easily meet that figure!

Of the sites I haven’t been to, Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine is the one I’d most like to visit. I must admit, however, to having never heard of Yakushima until this survey!
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Here’s perhaps a first for all the surveys I’ve translated over the two years or so the site’s been running; a survey not specifically concerned with an adult topic but it actually has data on adult issues rather than leaving the items to fall under the “other” catchall. This event occured in a survey conducted by MyVoice into mobile manga (comics).

Demographics

Over the first five days of October 2007 17,110 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 2% in their teens, 16% in their twenties, 40% in their thirties, 27% in their forties, and 15% in their fifties.

Q3 is the interesting answer! I’d love to see a more detailed by sex breakdown, especially to see who is reading the BL comics. I wonder what percentage is feamle, as my wife has a few manga that may fall into that category, but they are written and drawn by women and the characters seem very Takarazuka-esque, but then it becomes GL; indeed, is there such a category?
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I don’t know if it’s seasonal or just that I’ve been prompted to recall them by translating this survey, but there does seem to have been rather a number of advertisements for premium beer on the television and in print these days. The survey that prompted this recall was on my MyVoice into premium beer.

Demographics

Over the first five days of October 2007 16,882 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 17% in their twenties, 40% in their thirties, 27% in their forties, and 16% in their fifties. Note that since the legal drinking age is 20, no teenagers took part in this survey.

The exact definition of “premium beer” is not discussed, but it is presumably based on price differentiation. Q3 lists the main beers that are considered to be premium. For me, Yebisu is the only one in the list I’d choose; Guinness, a brew I like back in the UK, is brewed under licence here and has a very unpleasant bitter, tarry aftertaste.
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A constantly popular destination for Google searches is a survey from two years ago on QR Codes, the rather popular 2D square barcodes that appear all over the place and have been supported by almost every camera-equipped mobile phone for the last few years. To find out how usage patterns are today, let’s look at a recent survey from MyVoice into mobile phone QR Codes.

Demographics

Over the first five days of October 2007 17.091 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 2% in their teens, 16% in their twenties, 40% in their thirties, 27% in their forties, and 15% in their fifties.

The results here might be worth cross-referencing against last month’s survey, also from MyVoice, on mobile phone cameras.

Most of the QR codes I scan are from print advertisements, usually in the magazine that comes along with our mobile phone bill every month, and are shortcuts to web pages offering free downloads of various stuff. I do find them very convenient, but I’ve never seem a colour QR code bar in one article I read about them. Whether or not my phone can decode them, I do not know, although I suspect the answer is no.
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My cell phone camera sees rare use, mostly when wifey borrows it to take pictures of food or me when she’s forgotten her own phone. One use she puts her own camera phone to is taking a photograph of the weather forecast on the television then forwarding it to me. I’m sure there must be better ways of letting me know what the weather will be like, but since we can send mails for free, it works for both of us! To see what the average person gets up to, MyVoice looked at the use of mobile phone still and motion cameras.

Demographics

Over the first five days of September 2007 13,602 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 2% in their teens, 17% in their twenties, 40% in their thirties, 27% in their forties, and 14% in their fifties.

Both wifey and I have memory cards for our cell phones; in fact, she has a one gigabyte micro SD card which finds more use as an extra card for our main digital camera, but neither of us use the card for day-to-day storage, only for exporting (never importing!) photographs. Indeed, it would be interesting to find out how other people use their memory cards.
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No, we’re not peering at that aspect of Japanese bedrooms, instead MyVoice looked at just about everything that goes on in the typical Japanese bedroom.

Demographics

Over the first five days in September 2007 13,886 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 2% in their teens, 17% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 27% in their forties, and 15% in their fifties. Sadly the percentage of married people is not reported.

I would say I’m most comfortable in my garden and my bedroom, especially now that we’ve just changed to winter sheets! For Q3, outside of sleeping (etc…) I don’t actually use our bedroom for anything. My ideal bedroom colour would be perhaps a pastel green.
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I too would love an extra hour in bed at weekdays, but unfortunately one extra hour then would mean both a crowded train and extra overtime, so it’s at 5:30 am I must wake on weekdays. Recently MyVoice conducted a survey to find out how the Japanese feel about the matter, looking at the topic of mornings.

Demographics

Over the first five days of September 2007 13,641 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet survey. 54% of the sample was female, 2% in their teens, 16% in their twenties, 40% in their thirties, 27% in their forties, and 15% aged fifty or older.

In Q2SQ and Q4, only 1.8% and 2.1% selected doing the other if they had time in the mornings, which no doubt goes some way to explaining the low birth rate in Japan…
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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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I personally go to Subway about once every few months and Mister Donuts with about the same frequency; Subway for carry-out dinner, Mister Donuts to loiter and drink lots of free coffee refills! However, it is obvious that McD’s are wildly popular in Japan, and this recent survey by MyVoice on fast food backs up this casual observation.

Demographics

Over the first five days of September 2007 13,728 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 2% in their teens, 17% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 27% in their forties, and 15% in their fifties.

I’d love to know exactly why McDonalds comes tops of frequency of use in Q3 but MOS Burger is prefered in Q5. One reason is definitely the relative number of outlets; 1,500 MOS Burgers but 3,800 McDs, and the second being price; McDs has plenty of 100 yen menu options, whereas MOS Burgers sell for about 700 yen each. Since MOS Burger’s selling point is quality, they refuse to get into price wars.

Lotteria have recently annouced a 100 yen menu to compete with McDonalds, and the bonus question in Q6 on Krispy Kreme Doughnuts is perhaps inspired by the huge queues outside their shop, even after nine months after opening!

Oh, and the MOS of MOuSe Burger is made up from the initials for “Mountain, Ocean, Sky”, apparently.
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One thing I feel is very different since coming to Japan is that the insect population is totally different from at home; there we had bees, flies and bluebottles, caterpillars and midges; in our garden now we have praying mantises, crickets, cicidas, big dragonflies, stink bugs, asian tiger mosquitoes(vicious wee black things that bring me out in big allergic bumps) and of course the occasional cockroach, although those do not last long. To find out what the Japanese think of all these various creepie-crawlies, MyVoice conducted a survey on insects.

Demographics

Over the first five days of September 2007 13,734 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.

In Q7, I wonder if most westerns are suprised that the Japanese see themselves as ants much more than as bees. Perhaps this is because the word for bee, hachi, covers (I thinks…) not just the honey bee, but wasps and hornets too.

I’ve never actually seen a firefly myself; the closest I come is passing through 蛍池, Hotaru Ga Ike, Firefly Pond, every day, but whatever water-based insect feature that may have been there in the past has, I suspect, long ago been concreted over.
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