世論 What Japan Thinks

Honestly, it’s not just because I’ve recently launched a Japanese emoticon and smiley dictionary that I’m picking up a number of surveys like this one from Point On Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into mobile phone email use, with the focus for this report on textual and graphical emoticons.

Demographics

On the 15th of February 2009 exactly 1,000 mobile phone users from the Point On Research monitor pool completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.0% of the sample were female, 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 fifties.

Even though I have produced the above-mentioned emoticon dictionary, I don’t actually use text emoticons in my mobile email! Most of the time it is the built-in emoji graphical icons. I’d use more decomail (larger-sized, on the whole, animated gifs) but my phone is one of the first models to support them, so the user interface is pretty awkward to say the least.

I don’t get enough mobile emails to use any other pattern than immediate reply, but my blog email is another matter altogether…
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Maybe I’ve just been in Japan too long, but I’ve recently noticed train phone manners going downhill, with talking on the phone being an obvious hate, but also people who leave their keypress beep on irritate me a lot. These feelings seemed to be shared by most people, according to this recent survey conducted by Point On Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into mobile use onboard trains.

Demographics

On the 2nd of February 2009 exactly 1,000 mobile phone using members of the Point On monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. Exactly 50.0% of the sample were female, 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% aged fifty or older.

When I go abroad this sort of behaviour doesn’t really bother me, perhaps because I am accepting that it is the social norm for the country I am visiting, or perhaps it is because I’m often trying to sleep on my daily commute.

The picture accompanying this post is a Tokyo manners poster, one of a series of posters they have produced, with today’s statistic added for a more accurate representation of the situation!
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Despite SoftBank, WillCom and E-Mobile offering free voice calls to other customers of the same company (given certain conditions and/or payments), and au and docomo offering free calls amongst families, this recent survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by Point On Research into mobile phone voice calls shows not too much take-up of such offers.

Demographics

On the 18th of January 2009 1,000 mobile phone users from the Point On monitor group completed a private internet-based survey, although there is no information to say if they use mobile internet or computer-based. The sample was exactly 50.0% male, 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 fifties.

I very rarely make voice calls – even several times a month is too high a frequency for me. I only ever call my wife, and even though she can call me for free, we just use email as it’s far more practical especially since my commute is 90% inside a train.
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What a super excuse to promote my favourite purveyor of Japanese tat (and I mean that as a compliment!) through this survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by Point On Research into cellphone accessories.

Demographics

On the 11th of December 2008 exactly 1,000 cellphone-carrying members of the Point On Research monitor group (a footnote classified them as heavy users) completed a private (mobile?) internet-based questionnaire. The sample was 50:50 male and female, and 20.0% or the respondents were in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% in their fifties.

Dangling off my cellphone right now are: Monokuro Boo cubic pig screen cleaner; four-leaf clover with bells on; Miffy’s teddy bear; and Kobe Airport Hello Kitty jet, which for me is quite few. However, next week I should be getting a new one, as if I buy an advance ticket for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince it comes with a free gift of a Hogwarts scarf strap. I’ve got a million and one freebie straps and the like; I wonder if I could sell them on eBay?

Although you’ve probably missed delivery of a fukubukuro for New Year, if you’ve started thinking about Valentine’s Day, Strapya will engrave you and your loved one’s name on an acrylic strap.
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I haven’t looked at Social Networking Services (SNS) for a while, so I was pleased to find this one to report, published on japan.internet.com and conducted by another newcomer to me, Point On Research, on mobile SNS.

Demographics

On the 16th of November 2008 exactly 1,000 mobile phone users completed a survey. It does not say whether or not the survey was conducted via mobile phone or computer-based internet, as a mobile phone base would imply a higher percentage of people on all-you-can-eat data plans, so these sort of people tend to be more active online. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, and 20:20:20:20:20 of people in their teens, twenties, thirties, forties, and fifties.

Note that although most people use a cut-down browser on their mobile phones, all the major PC-sites have tailored their interfaces to fit these restrictions. Having said that, most of the top sites in Q1 are mobile-only free game-centred SNSes.
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