世論 What Japan Thinks

Yahoo! Japan released on the 25th of November 2013 their top searches in various categories for the year to the end of October. Here I will present just the top five in the various categories.

If you want to find out more about the various things, well, just search for it!
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A topic that has recently come to the fore is buses and/or trains running around the clock in Tokyo. It was covered on last night’s news as one of the ideas being floated to increase Japan’s attractiveness to foreign investors. However, one major negative issue is that currently the last train home is often the only excuse employees have for leaving work (labour protection laws are poorly enforced, and the pressure from societal norms means a lot of unpaid overtime is worked) or indeed obligatory after-work drinkies, so removing the final escape route could make the average employees lot much worse.

So, with that in mind, Yahoo! conducted an open news poll asking is 24 hour city buses and underground necessary? At the time of writing, seven days into an ten-day poll, 41,587 people have voted. 22% say both are needed, 5% say buses only, and 17% underground only. However, these three are outweighed by the noes to both, with 58% saying that both forms of round-the-clock public transport are not necessary.

For my first example of a quick chatty survey report, I found that Yahoo! Japan asked if restrictions on using smartphones while walking are needed in a poll published on their news pages, and from the 37,252 people who replied at the time of writing, 77% said that such a restriction was necessary.

Given that now just about all of the underground system in Tokyo, Osaka and elsewhere is now fully connected, and the sheer number of people commuting, and that smartphones, unlike traditional phones with physical keys, need much more attention to use, the scope for bumping into others will only increase.

This topic was apparently kicked off by a columnist who might be of some repute, Takashi Odajima, who said recently that walking more than 10 paces whilst looking at the screen should draw a fine of 2,000 yen.

Recently iBridge Research Plus conducted a survey, reported on by japan.internet.com, into search engines.

Demographics

On the 5th of February 2010 300 members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.0% of the sample were female, 18.7% in their twenties, 33.3% in their thirties, 26.3% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 9.0% in their sixties.

I’d never heard of 百度, Hyakudo before, but a Google (what else!) search informed me that it’s actually read Baidu, the Japanese version of China’s top search engine.
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Last month I had a look at buying habits on Yahoo! Auction, so as a complement today I look at selling on Yahoo! Auction, in a survey from Media Interactive (iResearch) reported on japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 7th of January 2010 1,000 people who had sold items on Yahoo! Auction completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.4% of the sample were male, 0.5% in their teens, 13.6% in their twenties, 39.3% in their thirties, 31.6% in their forties, 12.0% in their fifties, and 3.0% in their sixties.

It does seem that sellers are quite busy, with over two in five selling at least once a month. I’d love to find out more about what they are selling and if they are doing it as a real business or just selling off books they’ve read and clothes they’ve got bored with. Have any of my readers had any experiences of Japan online auctions?
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In Japan, Yahoo! Auction rules the roost, and this recent survey from Media Interactive (iResearch) into Yahoo! Auction showed that they also had the payment side of the auction well-covered too.

Demographics

Between the 7th and 9th of December 2009 1,400 people who had won auctions on Yahoo! completed a private internet-based questionnaire, although how exactly they found the 1,400 winners was not described. 52.1% of the sample were male, 0.6% in their teens, 15.4% in their twenties, 35.6% in their thirties, 31.2% in their forties, 13.1% in their fifties, and 4.1% in their sixties.

Yahoo! Simple Checkout is not like the standard for Ebay auctions, PayPal, in that it is not a bank-like entity but instead a trusted go-between so that there is no direct exchange of banking details. Yahoo! Simple Checkout can also be used when shopping through Yahoo! services, so there is no need to give your credit card details to the shops, just your Yahoo! Simple Checkout details.
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As the author of the Wikipedia nofollow WordPress plugin, I’m always on the lookout for stories about how Google and Wikipedia are getting on with each other. Recently I spotted this story on The Register about Encyclopedia Britannica complaining that Google ranks Wikipedia too highly. Naturally EB would complain about such a thing, but what particularly caught my eye was mention of an experiment Nick Carr, a member of the Brittanica’s board of editorial advisors, performed, looking up ten diverse topics in Google. Then, all 10 appeared on the first page of Google with two number ones. The current situation is all are now top of the pile, so I wondered what happens if I try the equivalent phrases in Japanese. I translated the terms by accessing the English Wikipedia then switching to Japanese, and using the article title. Also, since Google and Yahoo! battle it out for dominance in Japan, I used both engines, with the following results:

There are five non-first places in Yahoo!,something one can take as a good or a bad sign. For agriculture, ahead of Wikipedia in 4th place was Yahoo!’s own encyclopedia, an electronic version of a popular paper dictionary. The internet only making 17th place in Japanese is another curious outcome.

Yahoo! JAPAN recently annouced the results of a number of their “Best of 2008″, and one of the categories was what rare products people just couldn’t resist click through to. Voting was (as far as I understand) open to all registered users of Yahoo! JAPAN. The items were collected from all the Hot Items selected by Yahoo! Shopping between January and October of this year.

If you do like the look of Marimokkori, you can in fact buy him here.
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Yahoo! JAPAN recently annouced the results of a number of their “Best of 2008″, and one of the categories was the most clicked-through headline from Yahoo! News. The data was collected from all headlines displayed through Yahoo! NEWS between the 1st of November 2007 and 31st of October 2008.

You’ll notice that all of them are basically domestic stories, and most of the topics are either (or both) entertainment or death-related. You will note that nothing about politics, such as the minor matter of a change in prime ministers appears in the list, but in Japan’s defense I wonder if because these topics might have multiple reports, the clicks per story get diluted.

Click-through each link to find some English reporting on the story.
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Previous surveys have shown that Yahoo! is the top search engine (just) and the top start page, but what else do people use there? This survey reported on japan.internet.com and conducted by another new-to-me research company, Point On, and looked at the topic of Yahoo! JAPAN service awareness.

Demographics

On the 16th of October 2008 exactly 1,000 mobile phone users completed a web-based (mobile or PC?) survey.The sample was split exactly 50:50 male and female, 20.0% were in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% in their fifties.

The only service I use on either English or Japanese Yahoo! is their Japanese train route finding service. I have once or twice in the past used their greeting cards, but I found that service dissatisfying.

Note that I’ve linked through to all the services mentioned, in Japanese of course.
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