世論 What Japan Thinks

After the rather heavy and depressing survey on public order in Japan, let’s change the tone completely with another light-hearted and lightweight survey from goo Ranking. This time they asked both men and women what things they would be most prepared to stand in a lengthly queue for. The votes were gathered between the 18th and 20th of January, but no further demographic information is available. As usual, the score for each item is the percentage of the top votes that it received.
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goo Rankings published another one of their silly yet slightly unsettling polls recently, when they looked at what things are impossible to do now that they are an adult. The original Japanese version is phrased to have a suggestion of regret, I feel. The survey was conducted between the 18th and 20th of December last year.

I can’t really imagine the thought processes that are required to make hopping in the bath with their parents the second most notable thing that adults cannot do.
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Here’s a silly wee survey from goo Ranking on ___-only carriages on trains. The fieldwork was carried out over four days towards the end of October by means of a public poll, so no demographics are available. The scores in the survey represent the percentage of the top vote-getter that each option got.

Note that the Japanese term, ○○専門, maru-maru senmon, perhaps translates better as “specifically for whatever“, even though the most familiar form, 女性専門, josei senmon, is usually translated as “women only”. I’ll stick with “only” in the table, even though some may make more sense as “specifically for”.

I suspect that many of the votes were for enforcing segregation, such as for keeping the drunks or overly-perfumed (or even screaming kids…) away from the normal people. My vindictive vote would be for a bad breath-only car, but given the vapours in the average morning rush train, perhaps three-quarters of the carriages would need to be dedicated to those whose oral health was lacking.

In position number 7, strong heating or cooling, is perhaps in response to many lines having in summer a “cool” car, with the air conditioning set a couple of degrees higher. However, in my experience the default temperatures are far too strong, so I can only imagine that people are wanting a sauna or ice blocks!

I have previously translated a more serious look at women-only trains.
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Mari’s Diary covered a survey by ranking Japan on men’s bad habits that put women right off them. I must admit to being a big girl’s blouse with cockroaches, my desktop is covered in figurines, my parking is rather so-so although my excuse is that I don’t drive regularly, I sometimes play mobile phone games in the train, my wallet’s stuffed with point cards, I use lots of emoticons in my mobile phone mail, my writing is terrible even in English, and sometimes my keypressing gets a bit loud. Sigh, 9 out of 19!

If you thought yesterday’s survey was a strange thing to ask about, here’s an even odder one – goo Ranking on one’s favourite cloud. As usual for goo Rankings, there is no demographic information, and the top-scoring costume gets 100 points and all the rest get rates as a percentage of the top rank. This survey was also conducted over a three day period towards the end of September.

Just in case you’re not familiar with the term contrails, it means the condensation trail left behind jet aircrafts, but is also the source of many chemtrail conspiracy theories (warning – secure tinfoil hat before clicking link).

In addition, the auspicious clouds answer includes, I believe, the popular Japanese folk belief that earthquakes are preceded by very red clouds at sunset.

Living in Japan, one would, however, get the impression that the favourite clouds are from the fog of cigarette smoke. My personal favourite is my tag cloud.
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goo Ranking published today the results of one of their ranking surveys into what costumes people would like to try on in private, for both men and women. As usual for goo Rankings, there is no demographic information, and the top-scoring costume gets 100 points and all the rest get rates as a percentage of the top rank. Both surveys were conducted over a three day period towards the end of September.

Note that for some of the costumes it does not specify if it is male or female, such as for the women selecting Harry Potter; whether it is Harry himself they want to dress up as or as Hermione is not clear. However, I feel it is safe to assume that cross-dressing in private is a popular desire.

I’ve also linked a few of the costumes to work-safe material, so don’t worry too much about clicking on the links.

Finally, despite evidence to the contrary, dressing up in a kilt (outside of schoolgirl uniforms, perhaps) was not popular.
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goo Ranking recently published the results of another silly ranking survey, this time on which famous person born overseas but living in Japan would you most like to go on an overseas trip with. As usual, no demographic information is available, and the scores given are percentages of the top votes.

Don’t ask me why Thane is so popular, and many of the other answers seem like people were just struggling to remember any gaijin’s name. Note that KONISHIKI, an ex-sumo champion, is actually a naturalised Japanese, I believe. Also note that for some reason they give the state that the USA people were born in, and “Los Angeles State” is an error in the published survey!

From that list, I think Panzetta Girolamo (a middle-aged Italian playboy sort of guy) is about the only person who might be interesting to go off on a trip with.
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“What!”, I hear you cry, “aren’t all Buddhist priests supposed to be vegetarians?” The key word is of course supposed. The original Buddha, Shakyamuni, apparently was not, as is popularly believed, vegetarian, but instead just forbade people who would offer him food from killing an animal on his behalf. If he visited a family with a mutton curry in the pot, he would eat it if offered, or so it is recorded.

However, the various schools have adopted their own particular set of rules for their monks and priests, and most do (presumably) prescribe a vegetarian diet. And no alcohol of course.

Bearing this in mind, Triva no Izumi (Fount of Trivia) decided to ask 100 meat-eating priests what their favourite kind of 焼肉, yakiniku, grilled meat, beef in particular, was. What percentage of the total number of priests asked admitted to meat-eating is sadly not recorded. I have also previously translated another survey on the general population’s favourite grilled meat.
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Here’s a nice wee summer-tinged survey from goo Ranking: in mid-May by means of presumably an open poll on their web site they asked an indeterminate number of people to choose everyday soothing sounds. As usual with goo Ranking results, the top choice scores 100, and all others rank as a percentage of the top choice.

Having recently bought a flat with a garden, and with the mating season in full swing, I can well agree with the sound of birds being tops. I’m surprised, though, that the cicada figured so low, as it is a sound very typically associated with the Japanese summer. Perhaps they are just too loud, or are usually only heard in the torrid heat of midsummer to be considered soothing? I’d also have voted for the evening insects that herald the onset of Autumn. Round about the end of August the evening chorus changes from a harsh staccato to a soft, almost melodic, chirp. Perhaps that is the crickets at number six? Of course, in a British survey, the cricket sound would be that of leather off willow.
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With Japan due back from Germany tomorrow morning (no, I have no confidence in them being able to beat Brazil by two clear goals), let’s look at a recent ranking survey by DIMSDRIVE Research on what people would like to see a World Cup of. They interviewed 4,597 members of their internet monitor group, with 2,383, or 51.8%, male.

Note that many of the sports mentioned already have world championships, so perhaps people mean they want to see coverage of these events, or they are ignorant of their existence, as I was too until I started searching. The links you see below go to existing world championships or world federations of the sports mentioned, or just news of such events.

Note also that the top three involve food either directly or indirectly.
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