世論 What Japan Thinks

This survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into vending machines and public wifi found that not just awareness, but also use was a bit higher than I might have expected.

Demographics

Between the 31st of January and the 2nd of February 2012 1,074 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.4% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their teens, 18.1% int heir twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.4% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.

There really is a dearth of public wifi in this country, so even if the service is like the one in San Francisco airport which requires you to watch a 30 second video (that can be fast-forwarded through) I’ll be really keen to use it, as I’m a stingy git who tries not to use his normal 3G data.

Here seems to be the home page of the provider of free wifi for Asahi vending machines, FREEMOBILE. They are a bit thin on the ground in Tokyo, non-existant in Osaka, but all over the Nagoya area.

Have any of my readers tried them out? How are they?
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Considering how wired the country is, with the lowest cost/performance ratio for consumers in the world, the lack of availability of public wifi always surprises me; this recent survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into wireless LANs shows ignorance of their very existance is still quite high.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 21st of June 2009 1,079 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.1% in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 15.8% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

In Q3 it’s perhaps surprising to my overseas readers that games machines were the most popular device other than laptops that were used to connect to wifi hotspots, but to residents here, especially anyone who has visited a Pokemon Centre (the third most popular tourist attraction in Japan!) and seen the numbers hanging out with their DSes. In addition, McDonalds have recently announced wifi hotspots in their restaurants for DS owners.
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If you want to see people using public WiFi in central Osaka, don’t head towards the nearest Starbucks, but instead choose the Pokemon Center where you’ll see big groups of kids huddled around the gaming access point there. This recent survey from Marsh and reported on by japan.internet.com into public wireless LAN (WiFi) suggests that games machines are beating PDAs at least.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 8th of June 2008 300 members of the Marsh internet monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.0% of the sample was male, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 20.0% in their fifties, and 20.0% aged sixty or older.

I’ve posted this before, but I’ll post again; if you want to find a public wireless access point in Japan, this site in English aids your search. However, the one at Yodobashi Camera was WAP-protected when I tried, although their electricity sockets do work. The iPhone is going to suffer in Japan from this lack of availability.

Thanks to running NetStumbler on my way home, although I pass through about 22 railway stations, including changing trains at the largest station in Osaka, the only open WiFi I pick up are misconfigured domestic routers. Many of the stations seem to have locked-up tight corporate WiFi points only.
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