世論 What Japan Thinks

In this recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into the PC Recycle Law, the vast majority who knew it well reckoned it worked to at least some degree.

Demographics

On the 6th of September 2010 1,084 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.6% of the sample were male, 16.0% in their teens, 17.5% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 16.5% in their forties, 16.3% in their fifties, and 12.5% aged sixty or older.

I never got any explanation about the law, nor did I see anything in the manual, when I bought my computer nor my LCD monitor, which should also be covered.

I know somone who was too stingy to pay the 4,000 yen or so to throw out an ancient LCD monitor, so instead he dismantled it and chucked it out (in the correct recycle bins, I he must add) bit by bit.
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Having looked recently at the computer recycle law, here’s a related look with iBridge Research Plus, reported on by japan.internet.com at printer disposal.

Demographics

On the 10th of May 2010 300 members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.3% of the sample were male, 13.0% in their twenties, 33.3% in their thirties, 29.7% in their forties, 15.3% in their fifties, and 8.7% in their sixties.

In Q1SQ2, note that most local authorities have separate collections for unburnable rubbish and large rubbish. Some places charge for certain kinds of large rubbish, and some places also try to recycle the large rubbish, although I haven’t a clue what happens to the unburnables.

My local authority says that printers can be disposed of for free as large rubbish, although my last place charged 300 yen, so when I had a printer to throw away I dismantled it and chucked it out bit-by-bit…
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A recent survey from iBridge Research Plus, reported on by japan.internet.com, into the computer recycling law found a significant percentage unaware of the details, a category I fall into too, I suppose.

Demographics

On the 19th of April 2010 300 members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 59.3% of the sample were male, 12.7% in their twenties, 30.7% in their thirties, 34.3% in their forties, 15.3% in their fifties, and 7.0% in their sixties.

The Law for Promotion of Effective Utilization of Resources came into being in 2003, but due to almost no computers being recycled, a new version, the PC Recycle Law, was enacted in 2008. About all I know about it is that it means that you cannot throw away old computers and monitors, etc; you have to pay a fee to get them collected. Therefore, I have sitting in my trunk room an old motherboard and flat-screen monitor that I don’t really feel like paying a fee for, so they might sit there until we move house.
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This survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com regarding computer recycling is a particularly relevant survey to me, as I am right now in the middle of copying files from an old PC to a new one via my notebook.

Demographics

On the 7th of August 2008 331 members of the JR Tokai Express Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.1% of the sample were male, 14.2% in their twenties, 41.4% in their thirties, 23.0% in their forties, 12.1% in their fifties, and 9.4% in their sixties.

There has to be a better way to copy around 80GB of data from one computer to the other! I’m just using a network share and the rather nice utility TeraCopy that fixes a few bugs and annoyances in the standard Windows file copying routines. One other problem I have is that I only have one monitor and only one handy network connection so I cannot directly copy from old to new. Hopefully I’ll be up and running by tomorrow.

Regarding disposal of computers, the 資源有効利用促進法, shigenyuukouriyousokushinhou, or Law for Promotion of Effective Utilization of Resources, to give it its official English translation according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry web site, requires businesses to promote recycling of computers (and air conditioners, microwaves, televisions, washing and drying machines, fridges, and copiers).
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Given that it seems most people upgrade their cell phones once every year or so (I actually haven’t seen any data for this!), MyVoice decided to look at the issue of mobile phone recycling.

Demographics

Over the first five days of May 2007, 15,165 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 46% of the sample was male, 2% in thier teens, 18% in their twenties, 40% in their thirties, 26% in their forties, and 14% in their fifties.

I passed my previous phone back to a DoCoMo shop for recycling, and I suppose I have to trust them to completely reset all the internal memory. Mobile phone manuals are often huge tomes that are rather difficult to find your way around – I’d prefer to refuse them for a small discount, and rely on some decent web search to find what I’m looking for. On their web site, DoCoMo offer PDF copies of their manuals for download, so I wonder why they don’t promote manual-less phones?

Note that most of the 3G Japanese phones come with SIM cards, so old phones can be used by just inserting the current, live card into the old phone.
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