世論 What Japan Thinks

Not too surprisingly, Yahoo! comes out on top as the most frequently used news site in Japan, but there are still many interesting results in this survey from MyVoice into news sites.

Demographics

Over the first four days of April 2008 14,913 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 1% in their teens, 15% in their twenties, 37% in their thirties, 30% in their forties, and 17% in their fifties.

I am glad to see that the top complaint is the lack of information in articles; most Japanese articles are just two or three paragraphs long and as a user of Google News one finds very similar reports in different papers. Google News also reveals another problem, namely that articles often expire really quickly; even after only a few hours a lot of the links on Google News lead to error pages.

For English news on Japan, I recommend the appropriately-named News on Japan as a useful aggregator of news, although in a few months there may very well be a new challenger in this market…
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This is another fascinating survey with quite surprising results. The survey is from MyVoice, where they looked into the issue of email.

Demographics

Over the first five days of April 2008 14,815 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 2% in their teens, 14% in their twenties, 37% in their thirties, 30% in their forties, and 17% in their fifties.

This is interesting to see how people use their computer and mobile phone email addresses. Mobile phones are restricted to mostly communication with friends and family, whereas computer-based email does many things.

Most of the new models of mobile phones support not just display but also the creation of HTML email; that is email with inline photos and emoji, but they do tend to chew up memory space on the mobile phones. I can’t really say there are many benefits from HTML email; having said that, DecoMail is HTML email and I couldn’t live without that feature now when communicating with the wife!
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Back in Scotland I had a bike which I rode rain or shine to work and generally thrashed about on at weekends. In Japan, though, I fancied buying a bike, but parking seemed a pain, and the nearest open road seemed far, far away. To see what the average Japanese thinks, MyVoice performed a survey into this subject of motorcycles.

Demographics

Over the first five days of April 2008 14,860 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private online survey. 54% of the sample was female, 1% in their teens, 14% in their twenties, 38% in their thirties, 30% in their forties, and 17% in their fifties.

Ahh, I could talk for hours about the motorcycles I have owned and ridden! My last bike was a BMW, always a nice thing to mention in Japan as the brand cachet is strong, despite the rather more staid UK image, perhaps related to the relative rarity of the bike in Japan. My Beemer was actually a made under licence single-cylinder off-road styled F650 with the rather un-macho name of Funduro painted in an even more un-macho shade of peachy-orange. I’m sure there was a good reason why I chose that colour, but it escapes me.
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Although most guides to Japan tell you that credit cards are not widely accepted in Japan, that is becoming less and less of a problem every year as people start using credit cards more often. This recent survey from MyVoice into credit card usage, the second time this has been conducted, shows how monthly spending averages are increasing.

Demographics

Over the first five days of March 2008 14,886 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 2% in their teens, 15% in their twenties, 38% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 16% in their fifties.

This year I’ve just got a new card from Conan (the DIY store, not the barbarian or the detective) and I’ve quit using but not got round to cancelling my Asahi Bank Visa which used to be Miffy-branded, but then they changed the design to a boring floppy-eared rabbit photo without telling me. I also want to apply for an Daiei credit card as they do Hello Kitty branding, so getting a revoltingly pink one for use overseas would be rather entertaining.

I also have a gold card from my employer, but it’s pretty useless with the only bonus being free entry into rather naff gold card lounges at airports, and as I have to use it for business trip expenses which they don’t refund until after the statement comes, the company gets a percentage of the money spent in fees and doesn’t need to pay the employees for about two months after the expense.

If you want to look more at Japanese credit card designs, I’ve found two galleries, Credit Card Navi and Credit Card Design.
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One of the first uses I put my gaijin card (foreigner ID card) to was when I went to a barber, pointed at my mug shot and asked for a cut like that one. My Japanese may have improved since then, but neither my hair style nor my choice of cheap cuts has changed. This recent survey from MyVoice looked at how the Japanese view haircuts. Note that I had to delete one entry from the graph to the right, the visiting pro at 0.1%, as it was causing my graphing package a problem.

Demographics

Over the first five days of March 2008 15,004 members of the MyVoice internet successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 1% in their teens, 15% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 9% in their forties, and 16% in their fifties.

I just had a haircut this evening in my usual shop nearby a station where I change trains. 2,000 yen for the full works; haircut, shampoo, shave, eyebrow tidying and a 15 second scalp and shoulder massage.

In Q8, containing the list of best haircuts, it’s interesting that the top two for both men and women are the same, that both men and women choose men on the whole, and that many of the people have heavily dyed tonsorial arrangements, and there are almost no traditional straight haired people. I personally think Yukie Nakama has just about the best head of hair in Japan, a lovely long, straight, simple, natural black style. Thinking about it, most of the Japanese women that I consider to be beautiful (including the wife) have natural black hair.
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If you miss the last train home, a good tip I hear is to spend the night in an internet cafe. To see how popular that and other activities are at these places, MyVoice recently performed a survey on this very topic of internet cafes.

Demographics

Over the first five days of March 2008 14,691 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 54% were female, 2% in their teens, 15% in their twenties, 38% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 16% in their fifties.

Although I have never set foot in one, I have an image of internet cafes as dim and dingy places. I should really visit once just to confirm or dispel my prejudice, but as most will no doubt have a permanent fog of cigarette smoke I might not last more than a couple of minutes!

Last year one of the Words of the Year was Net Cafe Refugees, people working in casual cash-in-hand jobs by day, and dossing down in the cafe by night.
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Healthy beer is a phrase one doesn’t hear too often, but that’s basically the title of a recent survey conducted by MyVoice into health-related beer-like drinks.

Demographics

Over the first five days of March 2008 14,373 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed an internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 15% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 30% in their forties, and 16% in their fifties. Note that since the legal drinking age is twenty, teenagers were excluded from this survey.

I got a free can of Kirin ZERO for going to see a cross-dressing dancing General Douglas MacArthur (don’t ask!) but my wife gave it away to the father-in-law before I got a chance to sample it. I tried Tanrei Green Label and it was just as much swill as the full-sugar Tanrei!

In Q7, being good for health is an interesting answer. I suspect it is not just a poor wording (”can control calorie intake” might have been better), but I’ve seen people on television interpret “not so bad for you” as “can consume as much as I like.” One strong memory is of an actor knocking back two or more bottles of red wine a night and being shocked when the doctor told him that that was a bad thing.
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I’m sure many other people like to grab a bit of chocolate as comfort food to cope with the stresses of daily life, and this survey from MyVoice into mood-changing and sweets showed that the Japanese are no different!

Demographics

Over the first five days of March 14,773 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% were female, 1% in their teens, 15% in their twenties, 38% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 17% in their fifties.

I rate pretty highly on the stress scale, and I do eat perhaps too much chocolate, especially at work to get me through the afternoon I snack on Petit Bit chocolate, with kinako (soya bean flour) flavour being my favourite at the moment.
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One online game I see heavily advertised in Japan is a free online RPG Maple Story, although I’ve never actually played it myself, and I take no responsibility from any addiction caused by clicking through that link! To see what the average Japanese person plays at online, MyVoice performed a survey on online games.

Demographics

Over the first five days of February 2008 15,447 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, 37% in their thirties, 28% in their forties, and 17% in their fifties.

I used to play online games, starting with the sadly departed Meridian 59, then beta testing Ultima Online, Everquest as both a beta and a paid-for player, then finally Asheron’s Call for quite a bit until I found out that being an anti-social git meant I didn’t get very far ahead. I still miss Meridian 59, as it was small enough to form real friendships, in fact even leading to a real-life meeting with a bunch of other people once. I don’t think I’d ever do that again as there seems to be far too many weirdos about these days, or maybe it’s just I’m a bit older and less naive.
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This is a most interesting survey, given that there is currently being quite a shake-up in the mobile phone market, with SoftBank finally getting their act in gear and finally reversing their many year decline. To see how the market is changing, MyVoice conducted a survey into mobile phone service provider image. This is the seventh time this survey has been conducted, once a year since 2002.

Demographics

Over the first five days of February 2008 15,391 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample was female, 2% in their teens, 16% in their twenties, 37% in their thirties, 28% in their forties, and 17% in their fifties.

A white dog and a black guy are responsible for reversing SoftBank’s decline. I’ve heard people complain that there are racist undertones as the black guy is the offspring of a Japanese woman and dog, but I think that’s reading far too much into things. Here’s a blog translating one advert and here’s news of the dog releasing a photo book.

Note that today NTT DoCoMo have announced that they are joining au and SoftBank in offering free calls 24 hours per day between family members.
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