世論 What Japan Thinks

I don’t really know what to make of this recent survey from iShare into preferences for telephone call direction, but I present it anyway.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 26th of July 2010 476 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.1% of the sample were male, 29.8% in their twenties, 30.0% in their thirties, and 40.1% in their forties.

In Q2, people were asked the reasons for their answer; those who wanted to make calls said for example it was because they could call in their own free time and wanted to keep in touch. On the other hand, those who wanted to receive calls said it was because they didn’t know if the other person was free, they were happy to get called, and they were just not very good at making calls.

I hate making calls myself even in English, and I also hate getting calls in the office – I often just ignore my phone and hope someone else picks it up. If I’m the only person in the office, I just ignore the phone completely.
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Despite mobile phones reaching pretty much saturation point, according to recent survey into fixed line phones by iBridge Research Plus and reported on by japan.internet.com less than one in five see fixed lines disappearing in the future.

Demographics

On the 25th of January 2010 300 members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.7% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their twenties, 34.3% in their thirties, 33.7% in their forties, 11.7% in their fifties, and 4.0% in their sixties.

One reason why fixed line phones are not going away, compared to what I imagine trends are in the USA, is that mobile phone deals in Japan contain very, very few free minutes. SoftBank are the most generous, offering basically free calls to all SoftBank phones, and the other two main carriers have free family and friend calls to certain numbers, but otherwise mobile calls are pretty expensive compared to fixed line phones, and calls to mobile numbers also carry a premium.
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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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I’m not really much of a fan of voice calls in any shape or form, and I do find it difficult to hear properly on a mobile phone, but it seems I am very much in the minority in Japan judging by the results of this survey by JR Tokai Express Research Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com into voice calls.

Demographics

On the 9th of July 2008 331 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor group employed in either the public or private sector completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 77.0% of the sample were male, 8.2% in their twenties, 34.7% in their thirties, 44.1% in their forties, 12.4% in their fifties, and 0.6% in their sixties.

My use of my home phone is limited to once every two weeks when I have a midnight teleconference, and my mobile phone to perhaps once a month when I need to contact my wife more directly than with email.
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As mobile phone’s memory capacities increase, our need to remember phone numbers decreases. To find out in detail, iShare performed a survey into mobile phone dependence.

Demographics

Between the 11th and 13th of March 2008 889 members of the free email forwarding service CLUB BBQ completed an internet-based questionnaire. 54.6% were male, 23.2% were in their twenties and 76.7% in their thirties. 47.9% were married, and 22.9% lived alone. The respondents were pre-screened so everyone had a mobile phone.

I can only remember the last four digits of my mobile phone, my full home number, but I haven’t a clue what my wife’s is! I struggle to remember my work number, and I haven’t the slightest idea what my own personal extension number is!
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