世論せろん What Japan Thinks

Instead of the usual message of greetings or look back at the year, instead I’ve prepared a wee Flash greetings card for you all.

あけましておめでとうございます！

Just in time before deciding on New Year Resolutions, goo Ranking published the results of a quick survey they conducted in November into people’s unfinished business for the year. As usual, no demographics or other detailed numbers, just a rank of the percentage of the winning votes total.
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Just in time for the New Year, japan.internet.com published the results of an opinion poll conducted by JR Tokai Express Research into peoples plans for sending 年賀状ねんがじょう, nengajou, New Year postcards for the forthcoming Year of the Inoshishi (Wild Boar). 331 members of their monitor group successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.6% of the group was male, 6.3% in their teens, 20.5% in their twenties, 39.9% in their thirties, 23.9% in their forties, 6.9% in their fifties, 1.2% in their sixties, and another 1.2% aged 70 or older.

We finally got our cards posted out this evening, a grand total of 90 for us to send. As for email, I think the most we’ll do is a short normal mobile phone email or two rather than any special service.

Have a great New Year when it comes, everyone!
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Recently, goo Research published the results of an opinion poll it conducted on the subject of children’s extra-curricular education. Demographics are sketchy - the only available information is that the parents of 1,026 children aged between 3 and 14 years old. For people with more than one child, I’m not sure exactly how they answered - averaging all children, picking one, or each individually. 41% of the children were boys, 59% girls. The fieldwork was conducted between the 14th and 16th of November.

I know that there is a big industry around children’s education, what with advertisements on prime-time television showing children aged just four or five intensely studying, an image that makes me and my memories of a stress-free childhood uncomfortable. When it comes round to my turn to have children, I’d like to say I want to keep my kids away from this sort of pressure; I’d only want to force, or at least strongly persuade a future mini-me to study music or dance for enjoyment, as it probably is the one thing I most regret not having any ability in.

For the English teachers in my audience, note that in Q3 almost one in five want to make their kids take English lessons, surely a business opportunity for you all!
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japan.internet.com recerntly reported on an opinion poll conducted just before Christmas by goo Research on the subject of awareness of Web 2.0. 1,075 people from their monitor group successfully completed the internet-based private survey. 53.5% of the sample was male, 17.9% in their teens, 19.7% in their twenties, 16.8% in their thirties, 17.4% in their forties, and 28.2% aged fifty or older. Note that this demographic is slightly more male and younger than the average monitor group from goo Research; perhaps due to Christmas and other end of year activities the sample was slightly skewed?

For me, I’d have to say that I’m fed up hearing about it, and it’s over-hyped, an answer that sadly was not available. Perhaps that’s one of the 20 others in Q1SQ1?

As can be seen in Q2 and the headline, Google users seem more aware of Web 2.0, although the exact causal relationship is unclear. All in all an interesting but puzzling set of results.

In case you’re wondering, here The Register sums up what Web Two Point Naught is all about.
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DIMSDRIVE Research recently released the results of a very timely opinion poll on the topic of norovirus, a bug that can cause a rather nasty dose of gastroenteritis. Between the 20th and 25th of December 6,533 members of their monitor group successfully completed an internet-based survey. 44.3% of the group was male, 1.1% in their teens, 16.1% in their twenties, 36.9% in their thirties, 27.1% in their forties, 13.4% in their fifties, and 5.4% aged sixty or older.

I’ll give another plug to Japundit’s advice on simple measures to reduce the risk of infection, and note that although it is highly contageous and pretty nasty when it breaks out, is does soon pass, after perhaps two or three days. Mind you, it is better not to catch it at all rather than just hoping you can ride it out, and if you live with other people, the chance of you passing it on to them is rather high, I suspect.
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Who ate all the mince pies? Certainly not this poor chappie snapped outside an osteopath (or chiropracter or something) near to my place of work.

Just another day at the office in Japan, but an evening off in my blogging world.

With Christmas almost upon us; indeed in Japan it has now passed, as X’mas (note the extra apostrophe there that Japan almost always uses) Eve is the main time for parties and the rest. With this in mind, goo Ranking published a survey a few days ago on what food people would most like to eat at a Christmas party. As usual, no demographics are available, but since it’s the holiday season, I hope you can forgive me for not having them!

For me, tonight’s X’mas Eve special dinner was pizza. Hope you had a fun time too!
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At the start of this month MyVoice conducted a survey into functional sweets and other confectionaries. 13,384 people from their monitor group successfully completed a private online survey. 54% of the sample was female, 3% in their teens, 21% in their twenties, 39% in their thirties, 24% in their forties, and 13% in their fifties.

I chew xylitol-based gum every night after dinner, but was surprised to see how few others were daily consumers. My wife did try the chocolate diet with no success, however. The argument is that cacao-rich chocolate (75% or more) has very little sugar but lots of fibre, plus the caffine boost might have something to do with raising your metabolic rate. However, you are only supposed to eat 20 grams or so after each meal, and the high levels of caffine and other constituents can seriously adversely affect a significant percentage of the population, so I cannot recommend it to anyone.
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DIMSDRIVE Research recently published as part of their 103rd Ranking Research the results of a questionnaire to discover what people envied about the opposite sex. Over a week in mid-November 2,373 men and 2,334 women from their monitor group supplied their answers.

This appears to be just a fun, perhaps even silly, question, but when you look at the answers you see a lot of honest, even bitter, opinions on how people view the opposite sex. It’s also interesting how women envy men because men don’t need to do the things the men envy in women. (I don’t think that makes much sense…)
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