Entertainment

Japan fans’ expectations for the Sochi Olympics

How many medals do you expect Japan to win at at the Sochi Olympics? graph of japanese statisticsWith just three days to go until the start of the Sochi Olympics, this seemed a good time to publish the results of a survey by Intage into awareness of the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 17th of January 2014 exactly 1,000 members of the Intage-run Cue Monitor site completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, and 20.0% in each of the age groups of twenties, thirties, forties, fifties and sixties.

The pie chart above is interesting because the Japan Olympic Committee has set a target of outdoing their performance at Nagano in 1998 where they won 10 medals, including five gold. I think that is unobtainable, particularly five golds, but unlike the majority of respondents, I can see around seven to nine medals being obtained. Wee Sara Takanashi is a shoo-in for gold in the ski jump, figure skating might see a gold for Mao Asada and one or two other places, along with a couple of speed skating medals. Add in a couple of good performances in other sports and we have two gold and six of other colours.

I’m moderately interested in the games myself, but I’ll probably not do much more than watch the highlights on the news, I suspect.
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By Ken Y-N, ago

Projection mapping in Japan

Have you ever seen a Projection Mapping? graph of japanese statisticsRecently there seems to have been quite a lot of projection mapping going on, so this survey from goo Research decided to have a look at this very subject of projection mapping.

Demographics

Between the 13th and 18th of December 2013 1,085 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.8% of the sample were male, 13.5% in their teens, 15.9% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 17.1% in their forties, 14.6% in their fifties, and 17.2% aged sixty or older.

Here’s one I’d love to have seen, taking place last year just 10 kilometres or so away from me:

I’m not sure how accurate the results of Q1SQ1 are; although the Japanese text used a generic “see” verb rather “watch”, I wonder if many people assumed that the question was directed towards watching live, as the percentages seem a bit off to me. On the other hand, as there does not seem to have been an explanation of the term Projection Mapping, I also wonder if more people saw news reports on projection mapping but didn’t realise what it was?
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By Ken Y-N, ago

Smart TV reasonably well-known but hardly used in Japan

Do you use a Smart Television service? graph of japanese statisticsjapan.internet.com recently reported on a survey by goo Research into smart television.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 27th of August 2013 1,070 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.6% of the sample were male, 13.6% in their teens, 15.7% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 17.2% in their forties, 14.7% in their fifities, and 17.1% aged sixty or older.

I’ve not used any Smart Television services, and I probably couldn’t name more than Apple’s, Google’s and docomo’s offerings. My understanding of Smart Television is that the television actually becomes a dumb display, and all the interesting work happens on the connected device. Therefore, the inclusion of television manufacturers in Q1SQ1 and Q1SQ3 seems anomalous to me.
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By Ken Y-N, ago

Japanese’s most traumatic foreign horror films

The time for watching horror movies in Japan is not Halloween, but mid-summer, for the cooling effect of chills down one’s spine. However, this survey from goo Ranking looked at which foreign horror films people found traumatic.

Demographics

Between the 7th and 9th of July 2013 1,096 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.5% of the sample were female, 24.4% in their teens, 25.2% in their twenties, 24.8% in their thirties, and 25.6% in their forties; there was no-one older than 49 in this sample. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Note that the definition of “horror” is a bit loose – I wouldn’t class Psycho and Alien, for instance, as horror, and Sixth Sense was just awful.

Have any of my readers found Japanese horror movies traumatic? I’ve never actually watched any myself, but as for Western movies, Carrie was a bit traumatic for me.

Here is a picture of Japan’s most famous horror character, Sadako:

Sadako color
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By Ken Y-N, ago

Gurunavi and Tabelog Japan’s top restaurant sites

What is most useful reference for restaurant info? graph of japanese statisticsjapan.internet.com recently reported on a survey by goo Research into eating and drinking establishment usage, with this article focusing on web sites used for getting such information.

Demographics

Between the 19th and 23rd of April 2013 1,098 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.6% of the sample were male, 13.4% in their teens, 15.1% in their twenties, 21.3% in their thirties, 17.6% in their forties, 15.2% in their fifties, and 17.4% aged sixty or older.

I don’t really use these web sites much, as I tend to just visit a few regular places, and these places don’t have coupons that I can use. However, for work events our usual organiser uses mostly Gurunavi, and occasionally Tabelog.

As you can see if you follow the links, Gurunavi is the only place with English, although much of it is machine-translated and -transliterated, so the restaurant names come out rather wonky. Picking one from their selection for the day, it is listed as YAKINIKUDEN YUNIBAHSARUSHITEIWOHKUOOSAKANAITEN, but writing that as “Yakiniku Den Universal City Walk Osaka Naiten” would surely be more understandable!
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By Ken Y-N, ago

How and what video is consumed on mobile devices

How often do you watch video on your mobile phone, smartphone? graph of japanese statisticsA recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, was the seventh regular video usage survey.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 19th of April 2013 1,079 momembers of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private mobile phone and smartphone-based questionnaire. 57.7% of the sample were female, 3.2% in their teens, 20.3% in their twenties, 37.1% in their thirties, 26.5% in their forties, and 12.9% aged fifty or older.

I watch mobile video occasionally, mostly streaming cat videos from YouTube…
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By Ken Y-N, ago

Electronic manga comic consumption in Japan

japan.internet.com recently reported on one aspect of a survey by goo Research into manga (comics) that found that about one in three paper readers were also consumers on electronic devices.

Demographics

Between the 8th and 10th of January 2013 1,075 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.6% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.9% in their thirties, 15.8% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.

Instead of a comic on a mobile phone, let’s have a mobile phone in a comic:

iida now in manga

I’ve never read a manga electronically in any form, but coincidentally today at lunchtime I noticed a colleage reading one on a tablet computer.
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By Ken Y-N, ago

2012’s most recommendable anime and superhero movies

Here’s a nice year-end wrap-up survey, goo Ranking looking at the animated and superhero movies that people would most recommend.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 7th of November 2012 1,049 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.8% of the sample were female, 10.2% in their teens, 14.6% in their twenties, 27.5% in their thirties, 25.1% in their forties, 11.0% in their fifties, and 11.7% 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 seen none of the Japanese ones on the list, but I enjoyed Brave, missed Puss in Boots as it had a very limited dubbed release, but I just saw Frankenweenie recently on a plane, and I thought it was really hilarious. I presume it is low scoring because it wasn’t released until after the survey was conducted.

Here’s a trailer for the top film:


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By Ken Y-N, ago

Digital TV causing an increase in TV watching?

How has your digital TV viewing time changed? graph of japanese statisticsjapan.internet.com reported on the 6th regular survey into terrestrial digital television conducted by goo Research. However, the regularity of this survey is diminishing somewhat now that it is pretty much ubiquitous.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 9th of November 2012 1,086 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 16.2% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, and 28.1% aged fifty or older.

One possible reason for the increase in television watching might be more to do with the depressed economy and people spending more time at home, thus it’s not that digital makes programmes any better, it’s that people cannot afford to do much else.

The survey ends by noting that it would be nice if the focus of the survey could move to consumption of contents; broadcast versus recorded versus on demand versus YouTube, for example.
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By Ken Y-N, ago

Japanese prefer Korean smart televisions: part two of two

Which television had the best physical design? graph of japanese statistics[part one] [part two]

This recent survey from Interface In Design into smart television, where the respondents got to compare devices hands-on, produced the surprising result that one Korean model beat three Japanese models in almost every category.

Demographics

Between the 11th and 16th of October 2012 240 people were picked off the street to take part in a Central Location Test, where they could try all the devices under test hands-on. The sample was of people who watched television at home at least thrice a week, and there was a 50:50 split of the sexes in each of four age groups, with 25% in their twenties, thirties, forties, and fifties or older. The televisions under test were all 55 or 52 inch LCDs, Panasonic TH-L55ET5, Sony KDL-55HX850, Sharp LC-52L5 and LG 55LM7600.

I believe that in this test people were aware which television was which, in other words there is nothing that I could see in the survey that suggests that maker names were hidden. This makes the graph here even more suprising, as one would have thought the people surveyed would have been more loyal to their local brands. Even if names were hidden, it still makes grim reading for the Japanese television manufacturers, what with now all three of the makers here having their shares relegated to junk status.
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By Ken Y-N, ago