Demographics

Between the 4th and 16th of June 2008 1,200 citizens between 15 and 79 years of age were randomly selected from all over the country, weighted based on data from the 2005 national census. The questionnaires were taken by a combination of face-to-face interviews and self-completed questionnaires. There is no information about how refusals to take part or other failures to collect data were dealt with. 50.4% of the sample were female, 6.2% in their teens, 15.1% in their twenties, 17.9% in their thirties, 15.3% in their forties, 18.3% in their fifties, 13.2% in their sixties, and 11.3% in their seventies.

Following on from recent western press coverage on the topic, I was wondering if metabo, the Japanese abbreviation for the English metabolic syndrome might get re-imported back into English. I can think only of anime as a precedent, but in English anime usually only refers to Japanese animation, not all kinds.

Perhaps related, one in four British fatties refuse to admit it.

Research results

Q1: On a day-to-day basis, do you take care of your health? (Sample size=1,200)

	All	Male N=595	Female N=605
Extreme care	21.0%	19.0%	23.0%
Some care	55.8%	54.6%	57.0%
Not much care	19.7%	21.5%	17.9%
No care at all	3.3%	4.7%	1.8%
No answer	0.3%	0.2%	0.3%

Q2: What aspects of your own health do you pay attention to? (Sample size=1,200, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=595	Female N=605
Body fat	34.0%	33.1%	34.9%
Cholestoral	31.5%	28.2%	34.7%
Blood pressure	30.2%	31.4%	28.9%
Neutral fats	27.3%	28.2%	26.4%
Stomach state	22.1%	21.0%	23.1%
Dental decay, caries	19.6%	17.5%	21.7%
Blood sugar	16.8%	18.8%	14.7%
Headache	14.3%	8.7%	19.8%
Liver function	12.8%	18.3%	7.3%
Bone density	12.2%	4.4%	19.8%
Calcium deficiency	10.6%	4.7%	16.4%
None of these	10.6%	4.7%	16.4%

Q3: What do you normally do for the sake of your health? (Sample size=1,200, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=595	Female N=605
Get enough sleep	39.1%	33.8%	44.3%
Do exercise	36.8%	34.6%	38.8%
Don’t build up stress	31.8%	26.9%	36.7%
Don’t overdo things	31.3%	23.5%	28.8%
Limit salt intake	30.7%	24.4%	36.9%
Limit fat intake	27.6%	21.7%	33.4%
Limit sugar intake	22.9%	19.3%	26.1%
Visit doctor regularly	17.9%	15.8%	20.0%
Take supplements	14.2%	9.7%	18.5%
Take medicines	13.6%	12.9%	14.2%
Limit alcohol consumption	7.9%	11.3%	4.6%
Limit smoking	4.7%	6.7%	2.6%
Nothing in particular	15.6%	20.3%	10.9%

Q4: How is your current health situation? (Sample size=1,200)

	All	Male N=595	Female N=605
Healthy	25.5%	27.1%	24.0%
Perhaps healthy	55.3%	54.1%	56.5%
Perhaps unhealthy	12.8%	11.8%	13.9%
Unhealthy	3.2%	3.4%	3.0%
Don’t know, no answer	3.1%	3.7%	2.7%

Q5: What are you currently doing for you health, and what do you not do but are interested in doing for your health? (Sample size=1,200, multiple answer)

	Currently	Interested
Sauna, stone sauna	5.4%	19.3%
WiiFit	2.4%	15.8%
Hot yoga	1.1%	13.7%
Pelvic exercise	1.3%	12.8%
Horse-riding exercise machine	1.3%	7.6%
Detox diet	0.3%	6.7%
Pilates	0.9%	6.0%
Boxercise	0.5%	5.5%
Slow food	1.5%	4.9%
“Beauty waist” (bikoshi) exercise	0.7%	4.6%
Exercise DVD	0.8%	2.6%
Walking	6.8%	0.4%
Aerobics, stretching	1.8%	0.1%
Swimming	1.1%	0.2%

Q6: How much do you know about metabolic syndrome? (Sample size=1,200)

	All	Male N=595	Female N=605
Know the details	45.8%	42.5%	48.9%
Just know the outline	50.5%	53.1%	47.9%
Don’t know anything	3.6%	4.2%	3.0%
No answer	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%

Q7: Did you know that from April 2008 special health checks and special health guidance for early detection, prevention and cure of metabolic syndrome have been introduced? (Sample size=1,200)

	All	Male N=595	Female N=605
Know the details	29.9%	27.4%	32.4%
Just know the outline	43.6%	42.9%	44.3%
Don’t know anything	26.3%	29.6%	23.0%
No answer	0.3%	0.2%	0.3%

The respondents then had the diagnosis criteria for metabolic syndrome shown to them, and answered this self-test of their knowledge.

Q8: Did you know the standard for diagnosis of metabolic syndrome? (Sample size=1,200)

	All	Male N=595	Female N=605
Knew a lot	23.2%	21.5%	24.8%
Knew a little	50.8%	48.9%	52.7%
Knew almost nothing	16.3%	19.0%	13.7%
Knew nothing at all	9.6%	10.6%	8.6%
No answer	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%

Q9: How concerned are you about metabolic syndrome? (Sample size=1,200)

	All	Male N=595	Female N=605
Extremely concerned	14.5%	13.1%	15.9%
Quite concerned	43.6%	41.8%	45.3%
Can’t say either way	10.7%	9.9%	11.4%
Not very concerned	19.5%	22.4%	16.7%
Not concerned at all	11.5%	12.4%	10.6%
No answer	0.3%	0.3%	0.2%

Japanese feel that flush of success when they can empty their minds and bowels of concern, it seems! This recent survey from goo Ranking perhaps revealed more about constipation than thought processes when they looked at where good ideas come from; we westerners can be proud that the replacement of squat toilets with sit-down lavvies has contributed so much to the Japanese creative process.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 23th of May 2008 1,072 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. Exactly 50% of the sample were male, 5.7% in their teens, 12.9% in their twenties, 31.8% in their thirties, 27.5% 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.

My good ideas requiring inventive thinking most often come at bathtime; indeed my last two patents both formed in the tub. The loo is out of the question for me as I’m usually in and out rather swiftly, but the train is probably second-best as I’m quite often in either work or homework mode.

In Europe or Asia may seem like strange answers at first glance, but thinking about it it perhaps reflects seeing something novel; I know last year when I went back to the UK I got a number of ideas about what might be profitable ways to make money on the internet.

The photo above shows Rodin made out of toilet paper rolls, and was taken at the Yokohama Triennale of Contemporary Art by akame on flickr.

Ranking results

Q: Where do your good ideas spring to mind? (Sample size=)

Rank		Score
1	Western-style toilet	100
2	In bed	72.8
3	In the bath	69.8
4	In the library	51.8
5	In the car	42.2
6	In a nearby park	39.9
7	In an old-fashioned cafe	36.9
8	On a dry riverbed	27.9
9	Walking along the riverbank	27.2
10	In a Japanese garden	24.9
11	In the train	24.3
12	On the lake shore	19.3
13	In an art gallery, photo exhibition	18.3
14	In a valley	17.9
15	On top of a mountain	16.9
16	In a public bath (sento)	15.9
17	On a breakwater	15.6
18	In Europe	14.6
19	At the harbour	12.0
20	In Asia	12.0
21	At a family restaurant	10.6
22	At the airport	9.6
23	In the pub	9.3
24=	At the zoo	9.0
24=	At the cinema	9.0
26	On a department store rooftop	8.3
27=	In a hotel lounge	8.0
27=	At a hamburger shop	8.0
29	On the top floor of a skyscraper	7.3
30	At a Starbucks-style coffee shop	7.0

Demographics

Over the 15th and 16th of May 2008 1,080 married women from the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 20.1% of the sample were between 25 and 29 years old, 20.4% between 30 and 34, 19.9% between 50 and 54, 19.7% between 55 and 59, and 19.9% between 60 and 64 years old. For those who may have remarried, it doesn’t say if they should answer for their current marriage or for all.

My honeymoon was all over Europe - wedding in Scotland, then to Amsterdam where we got our video nicked, then Austria and Germany in slightly posher hotels. We’ve since been back to just about everywhere, except for Amsterdam, of course! We took about 16 days for it, although the guests we had to drag along from Japan stayed just three days, which seemed such a gross waste of time and expense, most of it ours.

Demographics

Q7: What were you particular about regarding your domestic honeymoon? (Sample size=477, multiple answer)

	Domestic, all	Domestic, 25-34 N=77	Domestic, 50-64 N=400
Easy schedule	39.2%	33.8%	40.3%
High-grade hotel	34.6%	52.0%	31.3%
High-grade food	13.8%	24.7%	11.8%
High-grade public transport	6.5%	6.5%	6.5%
Places for just the two of us	3.1%	3.9%	3.0%
Can do shopping for our new life	0.6%	1.3%	0.5%
Other	4.2%	3.9%	4.3%
Nothing in particular, forgot	34.0%	20.8%	36.5%

Q8: What were you particular about regarding your overseas honeymoon? (Sample size=371, multiple answer)

	Overseas, all	Overseas, 25-34 N=213	Overseas, 50-64 N=158
High-grade hotel	46.9%	55.4%	35.4%
Easy schedule	34.0%	31.9%	36.7%
High-grade food	12.9%	13.2%	12.7%
Places for just the two of us	7.3%	8.9%	5.1%
High-grade public transport	6.2%	6.1%	6.3%
Can do shopping for our new life	3.8%	3.3%	4.4%
Other	7.3%	7.5%	7.0%
Nothing in particular, forgot	26.4%	20.7%	34.2%

Q9: What were you glad about regarding your honeymoon? (Sample size=848, multiple answer)

	All	25-34 N=290	50-64 N=558
Made great memories	67.2%	80.3%	60.4%
Could spend time slowly together	47.5%	55.2%	43.6%
Could talk at our leisure	13.7%	16.9%	12.0%
Improved the image of my husband	7.4%	13.5%	4.3%
Could resolve problems together	7.1%	14.5%	3.2%
Other	1.2%	0.7%	1.4%
Nothing in particular, forgot	13.0%	4.5%	17.4%

Those who went on honeymoon skipped the next question.

Q10: Why didn’t you go on honeymoon? (Sample size=232, multiple answer)

	All	25-34 N=147	50-64 N=85
Couldn’t afford it	36.2%	33.3%	41.2%
Was pregnant, had kid	31.9%	44.2%	10.6%
Busy at work, etc	30.6%	27.2%	36.5%
Don’t really like travel	1.3%	1.4%	1.2%
Other	7.8%	6.8%	9.4%
Forgot, can’t remember	4.3%	2.0%	8.2%

For the next questions we are back to those who went on honeymoon.

Q11: For your silver wedding, etc, would you want to go on an anniversery holiday? (Sample size=848)

	All	25-34 N=290	50-64 N=558
Want to go	45.5%	72.1%	31.7%
If possible, want to go	37.4%	24.1%	44.3%
Don’t really want to go	10.4%	2.8%	14.3%
Don’t want to go at all	6.7%	1.0%	9.7%

Q12: Would you want to go again to your honeymoon destination? (Sample size=848)

	All	25-34 N=290	50-64 N=558
Already gone	10.7%	6.6%	12.9%
Not gone yet, but want to	29.7%	52.8%	17.7%
It’s one possible place we might go to	27.7%	25.9%	28.7%
Would rather go somewhere else	21.7%	13.1%	26.2%
Don’t want to go	10.1%	1.7%	14.5%

Demographics

Over the 15th and 16th of May 2008 1,080 married women from the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 20.1% of the sample were between 25 and 29 years old, 20.4% between 30 and 34, 19.9% between 50 and 54, 19.7% between 55 and 59, and 19.9% between 60 and 64 years old. For those who may have remarried, it doesn’t say if they should answer for their current marriage or for all.

My honeymoon was all over Europe - wedding in Scotland, then to Amsterdam where we got our video nicked, then Austria and Germany in slightly posher hotels. We’ve since been back to just about everywhere, except for Amsterdam, of course! We took about 16 days for it, although the guests we had to drag along from Japan stayed just three days, which seemed such a gross waste of time and expense, most of it ours.

Demographics

Q1: When getting married, which of the following did you do? (Sample size=1,080, multiple answer)

	All	25-34 y.o. N=437	50-64 y.o. N=643
Wedding ceremony	84.9%	78.5%	89.3%
Honeymoon (to Q2)	78.5%	66.4%	86.8%
Wedding reception	77.5%	64.8%	86.2%
Engagement party	66.6%	59.3%	71.5%
Nakodo (go-between)	47.5%	4.6%	76.7%
Informal party	30.5%	46.9%	19.3%
None of the above	7.6%	10.5%	5.6%

Those who didn’t go on honeymoon proceeded to Q10.

Q2: Where did you go for your honeymoon? (Sample size=848)

	All	25-34 y.o. N=290	50-64 y.o. N=558
Domestic (to SQ1)	56.3%	26.6%	71.7%
Overseas (to SQ2)	43.8%	73.4%	28.3%

Q2SQ1: Which domestic destination did you go to for your honeymoon? (Sample size=477)

	All	25-34 y.o. N=77	50-64 y.o. N=400
Hokkaido	15.5%	28.6%	13.0%
Tohoku	5.7%	0.0%	6.8%
Kanto	19.5%	22.1%	19.0%
Chubu	6.7%	3.9%	7.3%
Kinki	15.7%	18.2%	15.3%
Chugoku, Shikoku	9.2%	6.5%	9.7%
Kyushu	22.6%	14.3%	24.3%
Okinawa	10.7%	13.0%	10.3%

Q2SQ2: Which overseas destination did you go to for your honeymoon? (Sample size=371)

	All	25-34 y.o. N=213	50-64 y.o. N=158
North America	11.1%	11.7%	10.1%
Central, South America	3.8%	6.1%	0.6%
Hawaii	31.8%	25.4%	40.5%
Guam, Saipan	12.7%	7.5%	19.6%
East Asia	4.6%	3.8%	5.7%
Other Asia	6.2%	8.5%	3.2%
Australia, Oceania	11.3%	14.6%	7.0%
Middle-East	0.3%	0.0%	0.6%
Western Europe	16.4%	19.2%	12.7%
Northern Europe	1.3%	1.9%	0.6%
Central, Eastern Europe	4.6%	3.8%	5.7%
Africa	0.5%	0.5%	0.6%
Other	2.2%	2.8%	1.3%

Q3: How many days did you take for your honeymoon? (Sample size=848)

	3 or less	4 to 6	7 to 9	10 to 13	14 or more	Forgot
Domestic, all N=477	26.8%	61.2%	7.6%	2.0%	0.2%	2.0%
Domestic, 25-34 N=77	40.3%	49.4%	7.8%	1.4%	0.1%	1.0%
Domestic, 50-64 N=400	24.3%	63.5%	7.5%	2.2%	0.3%	2.2%
Overseas, all N=371	2.2%	42.3%	44.7%	7.8%	2.5%	0.5%
Overseas, 25-34 N=213	1.4%	41.8%	47.9%	7.0%	1.7%	0.2%
Overseas, 50-64 N=213	3.2%	43.0%	40.5%	8.9%	4.0%	0.4%

Q4: What form did your honeymoon take? (Sample size=848)

	Package group tour	Package solo tour	Self-booked	Other	Forgot
Domestic, all N=477	3.8%	18.9%	69.6%	3.2%	4.5%
Domestic, 25-34 N=77	5.2%	28.6%	66.2%	0.0%	0.0%
Domestic, 50-64 N=400	3.3%	17.0%	70.3%	3.9%	5.5%
Overseas, all N=371	31.0%	53.6%	13.2%	0.7%	1.5%
Overseas, 25-34 N=213	22.1%	60.6%	16.0%	1.3%	0.0%
Overseas, 50-64 N=213	43.0%	44.3%	9.5%	0.7%	2.5%

For the next two pairs of questions domestic and overseas honeymoons are split out.

Q5: Why did you select your domestic destination? (Top 10 answers) (Sample size=477, multiple answer)

	Domestic, all N=477	Domestic, 25-34 N=77	Domestic, 50-64 N=400
Expanse of nature	51.2%	44.2%	52.5%
Lots of famous places nearby	45.7%	45.5%	45.8%
Suited our budget	21.4%	31.2%	19.5%
Destination suited the season	19.1%	18.2%	19.3%
Suitable hotel	15.3%	18.2%	14.8%
Good food	18.7%	37.7%	15.0%
Can enjoy shopping	2.9%	6.5%	2.3%
Travel time	13.2%	11.7%	13.5%
Can enjoy entertainment, activities	3.4%	16.9%	0.8%
In vogue	3.6%	9.1%	2.5%

Q6: Why did you select your overseas destination? (Top 10 answers) (Sample size=371, multiple answer)

	Overseas, all N=371	Overseas, 25-34 N=213	Overseas, 50-64 N=158
Lots of famous places nearby	41.8%	48.4%	32.9%
Expanse of nature	40.7%	38.0%	44.3%
Can enjoy shopping	27.5%	28.6%	26.0%
Suitable hotel	20.2%	18.8%	22.2%
Destination suited the season	18.1%	13.2%	24.7%
Suited our budget	17.3%	16.4%	18.4%
Can enjoy entertainment, activities	14.0%	20.7%	5.1%
Good food	12.9%	16.4%	8.2%
Good public safety	11.6%	9.4%	14.6%
Travel time	10.8%	9.9%	12.0%

Thank you for your understanding.

Demographics

Between the 3rd and 8th of July 2008 300 members of the Marsh online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.0% of the sample were female, 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 went digital a couple of months ago with a Panasonic DiGa (I was going to link to the official US site, but it’s broken…), which is rather nice except for a slightly slow boot-up time; it’s about 30 seconds from power on until it’s ready to go. Mind you, I don’t really use the thing myself, leaving it mostly up to the wife to record. We’ve not filled up the hard disk yet; the super long-play mode gives us 400 hours, so we’re only half-full so far, even though we record two or three programs per day.

Blu-ray is still far too expensive, and as we don’t have a handy video shop (and more than enough movies queued up anyway!) there’s no real appeal.

Research results

First, from the sample of 300, 137 people, or 45.7%, had digital recording equipment. They were when asked the following.

Q1: What kinds of video recording and playback devices do you have? (Sample size=137, multiple answer)

Hard disk and DVD recorder	59.1%
VHS video	48.9%
DVD player	48.9%
Hard disk recorder	19.7%
HD DVD recorder	5.8%
Blu-ray recorder	5.1%

As shown in a previous survey, HD DVD outsold Blu-ray in Japan.

Q2: About how often do you record digital broadcasts? (Sample size=137)

Every day	21.9%
Once every three days	21.9%
Once a week	16.8%
Once every two weeks	4.4%
Once every three weeks	2.2%
Once a month	2.9%
Almost never	29.9%

Q3: How do you most often save recorded digital broadcasts? (Sample size=137)

Save to internal hard disk	47.9%
Copy to DVD	30.2%
Save to television hard disk	7.3%
Copy to Blu-ray	2.1%
Don’t save recordings	12.5%

This means keeping them around for a second viewing, not the first time-shifting save.

This final question was asked to those 163 who did not have digital recording equipment. It’s not clear from the question wording if people were being asked about a playback-only device or about a full hard-disk recorder system.

Q4: Up to how much would you pay for a Blu-ray based-device? (Sample size=163)

29,999 yen or less	56.4%
30,000 to 34,999 yen	11.7%
35,000 to 39,999 yen	6.7%
40,000 to 44,999 yen	3.1%
45,000 to 49,999 yen	11.0%
50,000 to 54,999 yen	7.4%
55,000 to 59,999 yen	2.5%
60,000 to 64,999 yen	1.2%
65,000 to 69,999 yen	0.0%
70,000 yen or more	0.0%

Demographics

On the 9th of July 2008 331 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor group employed in either the public or private sector completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 77.0% of the sample were male, 8.2% in their twenties, 34.7% in their thirties, 44.1% in their forties, 12.4% in their fifties, and 0.6% in their sixties.

My use of my home phone is limited to once every two weeks when I have a midnight teleconference, and my mobile phone to perhaps once a month when I need to contact my wife more directly than with email.

Research results

Of the initial 331, only 285 people were currently employed in the public or private sector. I don’t know why there always seems to be a big over-reporting of employment within JR Tokai’s research pool. These 285 were asked the following question.

Q1: Who is the service provider for your fixed line at home? (Sample size=285)

NTT	65.3%
KDDI	9.8%
SoftBank Telecom	2.8%
Internet Service Provider’s VoIP solution	16.5%
Other	1.8%
Don’t have a fixed line	3.9%

Compared with when the last time this survey was performed (no date given), NTT has lost 4.1 percentage points and Voice over IP solutions gained 4.7 percentage points.

For this question, the 11 who did not have a fixed-line phone were excluded.

Q2: On average, how often do you make calls from your fixed-line home telephone? (Sample size=274)

Five or more times a day	0.4%
One to four times a day	4.7%
Several times a week	20.8%
Once or twice a week	16.1%
Several times a month	18.6%
Once or twice a month	20.1%
Several times a year	9.9%
Once or twice a year	0.4%
Almost never	9.1%

For this question, the 9 who did not have a mobile phone were excluded.

Q3: On average, how often do you make calls from your mobile phone? (Sample size=276)

Five or more times a day	7.6%
One to four times a day	35.5%
Several times a week	26.8%
Once or twice a week	10.5%
Several times a month	12.0%
Once or twice a month	4.7%
Several times a year	1.4%
Once or twice a year	0.0%
Almost never	1.4%

Demographics

Between the 25th and 27th of June 2008 441 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed an internet-based questionnaire. 55.1% of the sample were male, 14.7% in their twenties, 48.8% in their thirties, 25.9% in their forties, and 10.7% of other ages.

Research results

Q1: Have you ever been to a maid cafe? (Sample size=441)

	All	Male N=243	Female N=198
Yes	10.9%	11.9%	9.6%
No, but want to go (to SQ)	32.9%	30.5%	35.9%
No, and don’t want to go	56.2%	57.6%	54.5%

Q1SQ: What is the main reason why you haven’t been to a maid cafe yet? (Sample size=145)

	All	Male N=74	Female N=71
Embarrassing	12.4%	14.9%	9.9%
Problem finding time to go	21.4%	25.7%	16.9%
Problem with the location (too far)	57.2%	52.7%	62.0%
Other	9.0%	6.8%	11.3%

Demographics

Between the 21st and 23th of May 2008 1,072 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. Exactly 50% of the sample were male, 5.7% in their teens, 12.9% in their twenties, 31.8% in their thirties, 27.5% 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’m pleased that there are no mentions of foreigners in this survey, but I covered surprising foreigner behaviour a couple of weeks back.

Number 2 is perhaps a little hard to explain to non-Japanese speakers; there’s a lot of “family restaurant Japanese”, young people working part-time in restaurants (or supermarkets, etc) who haven’t quite learnt the correct polite way of asking for things, with “I’ve taken it from 10,000 yen” being one example when you hand over a 10,000 yen note to pay your bill. It’s probably similar to getting annoyed at the “10 items or less” sign in British supermarkets!

I can relate to number 12, especially when I see fake Hello Kitty or other characters on cheap knock-off goods. Number 15’s translation doesn’t feel quite right, but I do feel uncomfortable when wifey is talking to friends and refers to me as shujin, master. Last week in the train I saw a guy with a manicure, nail gloss and a few gems stuck onto a nail, but pretty grubby worker’s hands and rough clothes. Kiddy beer is not quite right either!

Photo is from dlisbona on flickr.

Ranking results

Q: What sort of thing do you just feel uncomfortable about? (Sample size=1,072)

Rank		Score
1	Clothes on a pet	100
2	Hearing “I’ve taken it from xxx yen” at the checkout	89.2
3	Suit plus rucksack	73.3
4	Elementary school kid with a schedule book	69.6
5	Foreign buzzword-littered businessman’s conversation	68.2
6	Long-running animation after changing the voice actors	57.9
7	Cheap clothes and brand handbag	48.0
8	Zero calorie but sweet food, drink	44.8
9	Men with over-attentive eyebrow care	44.6
10	Company name after a merger	41.0
11	The way female staff at clothes shops call out “Irasshaimase!” (Please come in)	40.5
12	Brand name on cheap-looking items	40.3
13	Miso soup and curry	39.3
14	Big television in a studio flat	38.1
15	Spouse calling me “partner”	37.3
16	Okonomiyaki, takoyaki with rice	34.7
17	Udon noodles referred to as Inaniwa-style, Sanuki-style	34.4
18	Young salaryman with a pop star haircut	33.7
19	TV live-action drama version of a popular manga comic	23.9
20	Minor change to a stage name, company name	22.9

Demographics

Between the 26th and 30th of June 2008 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 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. Presumably teenagers were judged not sufficiently interested in news to bother asking…

In Q1 it might be surprising to western readers that there is not a separate category for television station-related news, as we have the BBC, CNN, and MSNBC, to name just a few high-profile television-related news sites. In Japan, two issues are that most of the television stations are owned by newspaper groups anyway, and their news tends to expire very quickly. In addition, portal sites are favoured by such a vast margin not just because everyone uses Yahoo! for everything, but also that few newspapers put more than a few paragraphs per story online anyway, so by reading the newswires through a portal one doesn’t really miss out on anything.

Research results

First, when asked where they obtained their news and other information from, all 300 people said from the internet, 280 people television, 163 newspapers, 57 from mobile phone-based news sources, 36 radio, and 30 people from magazines.

Q1: What kinds of sites do you obtain news from? (Sample size=300, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Portal site	260	86.7%
Newspaper-related site	84	28.0%
Specific topic-related news sites	71	23.7%
Other	10	3.3%

Next, people were asked which news sites they read. Yahoo! was the overwhelming winner with 78.7% of the sample using it. For newspaper-related sites, top was Nikkei Net at 29.3%, next was Yomiuri Online at 28.3%, Asahi.com at 28.3% also, Mainichi.jp at 19.0% (which may drop due to the fallout from the WaiWai scandal/storm in a teacup), Sankei Shimbun at 12.3%, and so on.

Q2: How often do you read online news sites? (Sample size=300)

Once every three hours or more	11.0%
About once every six hours	13.3%
About twice a day	24.7%
About once a day	39.0%
Several times a week	9.0%
About once a week	1.3%
About once a month	1.3%
Less than that	0.3%

Q3: At what times do you check online news sites? (Sample size=300, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
After returning home, after evening meal	134	43.7%
Just before bed	118	39.3%
Lunchtime or other breaks	98	32.7%
Before leaving for work, school	66	22.0%
After returning home, before evening meal	62	20.7%
At work, school	52	17.3%
Commuting to work, school	37	12.3%
While returning home	26	8.7%
After returning home, during evening meal	15	5.0%
When news (headline summary, RSS, etc) gets delivered to me	8	2.7%
Other	14	4.7%