世論 What Japan Thinks

With the economy going down the toilet and quite a few interesting in earning a bit on the side, this recent survey from goo Ranking takes a look at what side jobs people would like to try.

Demographics

Between the 20th and 22nd of January 2010 1,071 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.1% of the sample were female, 19.9% in their teens, 29.5% in their twenties, 30.5% in their thirties, and 20.1% in their forties. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Since everyone completing the survey is already a questionnaire monitor, although for just a nominal reward, the number one answer is either completely predictable or is implying that people would really want to answer questions for money.

Which reminds me, Get paid to take surveys! Join for free now! Just follow that link and you too can earn money by answering questionnaires, but more importantly I can earn money doing job number two…

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Having seen at the end of last year that over three in four are hurting financially, iShare followed up with a look at taking on a second job.

Demographics

Between the 4th and 7th of January 2010 495 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.4% of the sample were male, 33.5% in their twenties, 31.9% in their thirties, and 34.5% in their forties.

16.1% of the men unemployed seems a very high percentage, and with only 4% between the figures for those in their twenties versus those in their thirties and forties, one cannot really say it is due to student numbers. I’d love to see the age figures broken down by sex just to see if there’s a trend.

I suppose I should count What Japan Thinks as my second job, and I wish I could say that I’m using the earnings to save for travel, but sadly it barely makes enough to cover my living expenses gap…
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Thinking about your New Year Resolutions? This recent ranking survey from goo Ranking into what people wish they’d put more effort into this year might give you a hint or two.

Demographics

On the 19th of November 2009 1,166 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 59.9% of the sample were female, 13.4% in their teens, 20.6% in their twenties, 28.2% in their thirties, 23.2% in their forties, 8.3% in their fifties, and 6.3% aged sixty or older.

I think last year I did pretty well with networking outside the company by putting more effort into LinkedIn, but internal networking could be improved, but given the average corporate drone in the office, the motivation is just not there!
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Let’s end the year on a low point, by looking at a recent survey from iShare into how 2009 was financially.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 24th of December 2009 505 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.6% of the sample were male, 30.7% in their twenties, 33.3% in their thirties, and 36.0% in their forties.

2009 was pretty horrendous for me - I recently got my end of year tax summary which showed that my salary was down close to 10% due to both stealth cuts through the bonus system and a renegotation of the overtime system which results in more money in my monthly pay-packet but less in the bonus. Also this year our mortgage discount rate ran out, which was another few percentage off the family budget. On the What Japan Thinks front, AdSense revenue has never recovered from two years ago when it suddenly died for reasons that were never too clear. Traffic is about double from then, but click-through and earnings per click are down. I’ve never really managed to understand affiliate advertising, despite many attempts…
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Gender might have been a more correct word to use in the headline, but I’m sure it wouldn’t have got so many click-throughs! This recent survey from iShare looked at the interesting, but not as saucy as the title might suggest, topic of desired gender of bosses in Japan.

Demographics

Between the 10th and 15th of September 2009 555 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.1% of the sample were male, 35.1% in their twenties, 30.8% in their thirties, and 34.1% in their forties.

I’ve had my share of bosses of both sexes in Japan, and I can say that all bar one of the male bosses were awful. I don’t know whether it is the company training practices, promotion scheme, or just that most of them worked for or under others at some point and the uselessness rubbed off. The common faults in all their management styles are an inability to delegate meaningfully, presumption of their own correctness (reinforced by Japan’s sempai-kohai relationship) to the extent of ignoring differing opinions, and the ability to drone on at length on random subjects at the drop of a hat. Oh, and just in case my current male boss is reading, yes, that includes you too.
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Today’s sideways look at Japanese society is courtesy of goo Ranking as usual, where they investigated what, outside of directly work-related issues, new starts in the office would ask their seniors, for both men and women.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 2nd of February 2009 1,076 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 51.1% of the sample were male, 7.2% in their teens, 15.8% in their twenties, 29.4% in their thirties, 25.2% in their forties, 11.1% in their fifties, and 11.3% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

The use of “senior” is one of these difficult words to translate from Japanese. The usual translation of 先輩, sempai, is just “senior”, but in this one small word there are elements of respect and a big brother-little brother relationship. “Mentor” would be too formal and narrow a role, and it’s a much more long-term relationship than “the guy who showed me around when I started.”
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Two sillynesses for the price of one today, with the second dose also from goo Ranking, looking at the moment one realises that two people at the office were an item, for both men and women.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 26th of January 2009 1,071 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 51.8% of the sample were male, 6.9% in their teens, 14.3% in their twenties, 28.9% in their thirties, 27.8% in their forties, 11.3% in their fifties, and 10.8% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

I’ve not been in this situation in Japan, but it did happen once at a previous employer when I realised that one person was giving the other a lift home every night, yet they both lived in opposite directions. I actually ended up following their car one night.

Indeed, considering how closely everyone works and socialises, people keep their love life very close to their chests; it is not uncommon for someone in the office to suddenly announce being not just engaged, but actually married.

Photo from jasoneppink on flickr.
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Although Joe Jones at MutantFrog is arguing that Japan doesn’t need work-life balance, I think it is badly needed, so this ranking survey from goo Ranking looking at what systems people think companies should introduce to realise work-life balance, for both men and women, was rather informative for me.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 23rd of November 2008 1,083 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a privacte internet-based questionnaire. 50.4% of the sample were female, 9.0% in their teens, 15.7% in their twenties, 29.1% in their thirties, 25.5% in their forties, 11.3% in their fifties, and 9.4% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Just in case the terminology is a bit unclear, nursing refers to looking after an aged or infirm relative, and “returning to the workforce systems” is for mothers looking for a new job, as currently they find it very difficult to get a professional post after a few years out of the market. On the other hand, “support for returning to the same job” is to ease transition back into one’s old workplace after perhaps just a year or two off.

What’s needed in my opinion is training in time management to teach everyone how to do their job in the nine-to-five, and all the associated support systems that go along with that to ensure it is enforced at all levels in the workplace.
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Here’s an interesting (but a fuller version would be even more interesting) survey conducted by Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com into taking work computers home.

Demographics

Between the 4th and 9th of December 2008 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.0% of the sample were 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.

At my place of work we have a number of interesting rules regarding taking computers out of the office. I take mine home almost every day, and of course since it is forbidden I never ever use it to prepare my blog entries nor have I installed no end of tools to assist in creation of said entries, even though by deleting the uninstall entries from the registry they can be hidden from the licence checking software. Or so I’ve been told, I of course do not know if that is true or not.
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Here’s a bit of a short survey that has rather interesting results; iShare looked at the end of the year Jumbo Lottery.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 25th of November 2008 430 members of the CLUB BBQ free online email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.5% of the sample were male, 13.3% in their twenties, 54.4% in their thirties, 23.5% in their forties, and 8.8% in their teens or fifty or older.

First a lottery tip: if you can spare 300 yen, buy just one ticket. This measurably changes your odds from absolutely zero to infinitesimal. Buying a second leaves your odds still infinitesimal, so don’t bother.

Next, the lottery does seem to have a lot of misconceptions surrounding it, mainly focussing on the drawing method and the relatively small first prize, leading many to think that it’s even more of a tax on the innumerate than the average one. However, the term “lottery” is misleading, as most people imagine the pick six from fifty-type schemes that are prevelant in the west, whereas Japan’s is more like a raffle - all the sold tickets go into a hat and winners are drawn from there, so if it is a sell-out all the prizes (in theory) will be claimed.

This year there are 70 first prizes of 200 million yen (roughly 2 million US dollars), 140 almost-first prizes of 50 million yen, 6,930 almost-almost first prizes of 100,000 yen, 140 second prizes of 100 million yen, 700 at 5 million yen, and so on, assuming they sell all 70 blocks of tickets. In total, there are 700 million tickets for sale (about 6 per man, woman and child) for a total value of 210 billion yen. I make that just over 99 billion yen in prize money, or 47.3% of the sales, leaving just under 111 billion yen in the pot. Once television and print advertising, sales overhead, amakudari-inflated old-boy director salaries, and everything else are paid for, that leaves a little bit left over (can anyone point me to figures for administration costs on the lottery?) for good causes, but I have little idea what they fund.

Oh, there’s a headline figure of 300 million yen advertised as the top prize, but I’m not really sure how one ticket can get the extra 100 million.

So, back to the survey.
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