Featured

survey

Which is More Loved in Japan: Cats or Dogs?

Which is More Loved in Japan: Cats or Dogs?

It’s the eternal struggle of pet preferences. There’s no question that the top two choices for pets are cats and dogs and the human race is ultimately divided between so-called “cat-people” and “dog-people.” Since there can only be one animal to take the number one spot as “favorite pet,” large scale surveying website Research Planet asked nearly 30,000 Japanese people straight up, “Which do you like better, dogs or cats?”

Read More

One in Five Young Adults Have Eaten in a Restroom and Other Japanese Toilet Trends

One in Five Young Adults Have Eaten in a Restroom and Other Japanese Toilet Trends

Plumbing dealer Sunrefre Plaza opened a Facebook page this year called Love X Toilet which shares various tidbits of information regarding the world of toilets. On top of that, they held a survey asking around 2,500 Japanese people about their toilet habits. The results were enlightening to say the least.

Read More

College Survey: Number of Members in Japanese Music Groups Proportional to Level of Sucking 【Music Video Blowout】

College Survey: Number of Members in Japanese Music Groups Proportional to Level of Sucking 【Music Video Blowout】

A chart surface on the Internet recently titled: 100 American College Music Majors Analyze Japanese Musical Talent and the Relationship with the Number of Members.

How exactly this information came together is unknown, but the name suggests that 100 American music students were surveyed about several Japanese music acts past and present. Those results were then plotted against the number of members in each band.

The results certainly do suggest that there is a correlation between the number of members in a music act and the perceived crappiness of said act. So lets examine this more deeply with some samples and a translated version of the chart above.

Read More

Survey Shows 85.2% of Japanese People Are In Favor of Death Penalty, Others Demand “Something Worse”

Survey Shows 85.2% of Japanese People Are In Favor of Death Penalty, Others Demand “Something Worse”

On 21 February, Japan hanged a trio of convicts for murders including the kidnapping death of a young girl and a stabbing rampage which left nine dead. Those executed were Masahiro Kanagawa, Kaoru Kobayashi and Keiki Kano (nee Muto).

As always, these hangings drew outrage from Amnesty International and the Japanese Federation of Bar Associations who made a statement saying they find “these executions unacceptable.”

However, this opposition is largely ignored by the government of Japan who maintains that the population at large supports their policy of penalty by death.

To confirm this, the following day, the Research Panel website posted the results of a survey conducted of 29,364 people asking them how they felt about the death penalty.

Read More

Survey to Find Japan’s 50 Favorite Western Musical Acts Now On, Interim Results A Little Surprising

Survey to Find Japan’s 50 Favorite Western Musical Acts Now On, Interim Results A Little Surprising

On their Premium satellite channel, Japan’s national television broadcaster NHK is currently offering an online survey for people to vote for their favorite musicians from Western culture.

This is in preparation for its 50 Best Western Music Artist’s Japanese People Love program on 26 February. During the show NHK will present the results along with archive footage and interviews.

However, Oricon Style released the top five candidates according to votes counted as of 8 February, giving us an idea of how the final list will turn out. You can probably imagine a few of the musicians on the list, but a couple might surprise some and delight others.

Read More

Smokers! Layabouts! Takoyaki Cheeks! Japan’s Singletons List the Kinds of People They’d Hate to Marry

Smokers! Layabouts! Takoyaki Cheeks! Japan’s Singletons List the Kinds of People They’d Hate to Marry

On the subject of love, marriage and relationships, Japan’s My Navi News carried out a survey late last year in which it asked 905 regular readers to share their pet peeves and relationship deal breakers. Rather than focusing on a partner’s merits, readers were asked to list the points that would turn them off or cause them to rule out the idea of marriage altogether. A relationship hate list, if you will.

Dividing the responses by sex, there were some surprising – and some not so surprising – replies. Dozens of tips for singletons and plenty for those already in relationships to bear in mind after the break.

Read More

14.8% of Japanese Housewives Claim to Have Committed Adultery, 60.8% of Whom Having 2-5 Partners

14.8% of Japanese Housewives Claim to Have Committed Adultery, 60.8% of Whom Having 2-5 Partners

Japanese daytime drama “Shiawase no jikan”(Toukai TV station), or “Time of Happiness” in English, has become notorious for setting hearts a-racing and palms a-sweating with to its saucy depiction of extramarital liaisons. In this drama both sexes find themselves, in someway or another, indulging in illicit flings, with most of the affairs getting, shall we say ‘messy’, fairly quickly.

As far as dramas go, adultery or some form of sexual depiction is a secure way to increase the viewing ratings, but what about the marital situation of the ‘real’ Japanese housewives out there? A recent poll has the answers!

Read More

Japanese Men Share Their Worst Christmas Experiences Ever: Pikachu, Platoon and Painkillers

Japanese Men Share Their Worst Christmas Experiences Ever: Pikachu, Platoon and Painkillers

So this is Christmas. The time where we all sip eggnog by the open fire enjoying the gentle blanket of wet snow covering a meadow as a deer scampers by, right?

Of course not, it’s raining here now and my glasses are broken. Still, I’d consider this an average holiday season for myself. For many out there, Santa has little more than a big bag of suck to stuff in your stocking.

Don’t sweat it though. Every year can’t be a winner. For those having a blue Christmas, the website MyNavi has compiled a list of Japanese men’s worst Chirstmas experiences.

Read More

The Nicest City to Visit in the World According to Tourists Is…

  • Dec 21, 2012 by
  • Comments0

The Nicest City to Visit in the World According to Tourists Is…

Okay, I have to say I’m super happy about this particular story! Why? Because guess which city was recently ranked number one in a world-wide survey of what people thought about 40 key tourist destinations around the world — that’s right, none other than my home city of Tokyo!

And this wasn’t just any ordinary survey; it was a survey conducted by TripAdvisor, the well-known international travel site, and based on more than 75,000 responses sent in by people who had recently reviewed on the website the cities featured in the survey. I’m pretty sure it was no mean feat to be ranked first among 40 popular tourist cities in this survey, so I’m very happy indeed that the Japanese capital earned top honors.

I, for one, love to travel and I’m always dreaming about going away on vacation somewhere, but I guess I need to appreciate how lucky I am to be living in what people rated the nicest city in the world. So, what did people find appealing about Tokyo, and which other cities received high marks? We thought you might be interested in learning the details of the survey results, which were as follows: Read More

Asia Found to be the Least Religious Place on Earth, China Tops List with Japan Coming in Second

Asia Found to be the Least Religious Place on Earth, China Tops List with Japan Coming in Second

The Pew Research Center in America recently released the results of a survey measuring the populations and distributions of the world’s major religions. Coming in at first and second place are Christianity and Islam, but making an impressive third place standing was “none.”

Of these people with no religious affiliation, the lion’s share live in the Asia Pacific Region of the world – 76.2% to be exact.  In terms of sheer numbers, that’s roughly 858,580,000 people, one fifth of the total population in the region.

Read More

Get Laid, Get Paid: Japanese Adult Video Company Recruiting Sex Industry Reviewers

Get Laid, Get Paid: Japanese Adult Video Company Recruiting Sex Industry Reviewers

Soft on Demand, the Japanese adult video producer and manufacturer of condoms, sex toys and cheeky underpants, has made the dreams of thousands of men come true this week by announcing that it is searching for men to sample “soap land”, “health” and sex parlours across the country, with the money spent during each visit refunded in full.

The catch? Visitors to these red light establishments must write a full, detailed review of their experience that will become part of Soft on Demand’s sex industry survey, which aims to stamp out shady (well, shadier) venues and provide men looking for a place to get their rocks off with a detailed database to study before heading out for some fun. A Trip Advisor of hanky panky, if you will.

After the company made the announcement via its official Twitter feed, many wondered whether Soft on Demand were merely playing a prank on us easily excitable men. A quick trip to the company’s official website, however, reveals that they’re deadly serious.

Ooh. La. La.

Read More

Sick of Ridiculous Love Triangles and Borderline Incest in Your Anime? So is Japan, According to Online Poll

Sick of Ridiculous Love Triangles and Borderline Incest in Your Anime? So is Japan, According to Online Poll

I remember purchasing an anime VHS that had caught my eye while browsing the local video store back in middle school. It was called Tenchi Muyo!, and according to the description, it was about space pirates, legendary scientists, and intergalactic police, which all sounded pretty cool.

When I actually watched it, though, I was surprised to find that all of the above characters were beautiful young women. Not only that, but they all end up living with the main character, a normal young Japanese boy, and develop romantic feelings for him. Comedic antics were involved. It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind and, while there were action sequences, most of it was incredibly embarrassing to watch with my family around.

You see, until then, I thought Japanese anime was all about epic battles, giant robots and, on Saturday mornings on Kids’ WB!, Pokemon. For kids living in the US during the late 1990s, maybe it was.

But it seems that for the past several years in Japan, the whole “uninspired male protagonist stuck in love triangle with beautiful women” convention— a genre now known as “harem“— and similar racy themes like the borderline incestuous “little sister” genre, have become the face of the medium.

Well it looks like Japan has finally had enough: according to a survey conducted on Anime One in which nearly 6000 people replied, anime fans are sick of harem, little sister, and other bland and erotic subgenres.

Read More

Survey About Employees’ “Ideal Boss” Highlights Major Differences Between Japanese and Chinese Thinking

Survey About Employees’ “Ideal Boss” Highlights Major Differences Between Japanese and Chinese Thinking

Bitching about our bosses is probably one of the best things about socialising with coworkers. They’re to strict; they’re a push-over; they have coffee breath and get way too close when they talk; whatever the issue, complaining about the boss is a great stress reliever and helps us get through the day.

According to a recent survey taken across four countries, however, expectations of bosses and opinions of what makes a good one vary wildly between countries. Not only that, Japan ranks as the country with the lowest “boss satisfaction” rate of all those surveyed.

Of course, my boss is the greatest, and I would never even dream of saying a bad word about him <cough>Christmasbonus<cough>, but the difference between the opinions of those surveyed in Japan and those in other countries, most notably China, is startling.

Read More

Nine Expectations That Japanese Women Have In Their Men, if They Are Men

Nine Expectations That Japanese Women Have In Their Men, if They Are Men

We all have our expectations of the opposite sex, the ideal of how we would like them to be.  Even though we can’t say it to their faces, in our hearts, we know that a man/woman should be able to be or do this or that precisely because he/she is a man/woman.

With that in mind, Otomesugorn surveyed their female readers to find out their expectations of men, of what is naturally expected of them, by their women.  All the young women who were asked what they naturally expected of their male counterparts were in their 20′s.  Here are their expectations, one through nine, and the comments they gave about them. Read More

Under 50% of Workers in Japan Received Full Payment for Overtime According to Labor Survey

Under 50% of Workers in Japan Received Full Payment for Overtime According to Labor Survey

As the world continues to change, countries like China have been experiencing overall improvements to their quality of life while traditionally more developed countries seem to be slipping in terms of job security and benefits.

According to a yearly study conducted by labor research groups and think tanks, only 46.9% of workers in Japan receive their overtime in full. This is a significant 8.9% lower from just a year before.

Read More

A Month After Japan’s Strict New Download Law Comes into Effect, Survey Suggests that Consumers are Spending Less Than Ever on Music

A Month After Japan’s Strict New Download Law Comes into Effect, Survey Suggests that Consumers are Spending Less Than Ever on Music

As of 1 October this year, knowingly downloading copyrighted music and video in Japan became punishable by up to two years in prison and a 2 million yen (US$25,000) penalty.

The law was passed in June after the Japanese music industry, the second largest in the world after the US, reported continued financial losses, with analysts suggesting that just one in 10 downloads were legal.

Since the law came into effect, there have certainly been some changes, and many internet users have become reluctant to click that download button for fear of receiving a hefty fine, meaning that the law has been a success in a way.

According to a recent statistical survey, however, since the law was passed, sales of music in Japan have continued to fall and consumers are actually showing less interest in music than ever before…

Read More

【Survey】When do Japanese People Have Their First Kiss? When Did You Have Yours?

【Survey】When do Japanese People Have Their First Kiss? When Did You Have Yours?

Japanese men aren’t known for being the most romantically aggressive bunch. Many young Japanese women lament over having to take the lead just to get out of the dugout and onto first base.

If Japanese guys are so reluctant to get touchy-feely, you’ve got to wonder: at what age do Japanese people have their first kiss?

Read More

Why Halloween Isn’t Popular in Japan: “I don’t celebrate Halloween because I don’t have a boyfriend”

Why Halloween Isn’t Popular in Japan: “I don’t celebrate Halloween because I don’t have a boyfriend”

Although the religious aspects of Christmas aren’t widely celebrated in Japan, the country has fully embraced jolly old St. Nick.  This has led to a very different version of Christmas than most are used to, but it’s still “Christmas.”  Japanese households are sure to eat Christmas cake (a cake with candles eaten on Christmas day that looks similar to birthday cake) and enjoy the traditional Christmas bucket of KFC chicken (clever marketing, KFC!).  Despite its differences, Christmas is still accepted as Christmas and it seems like all of Japan celebrates the holiday in some form on December 25th.

Judging from the status of Christmas in Japan, you would think that the Japanese are also crazy for Halloween.  On the contrary, Halloween is not very popular in Japan.

But why hasn’t Halloween taken off the way Christmas has?  Japanese website, Yukan News, asked this very same question.

Read More

Poll Reveals 60% of Japanese Hate Insects, but What is the Most Despised?

Poll Reveals 60% of Japanese Hate Insects, but What is the Most Despised?

My Navi News, a Japanese news website, polled 1000 of their members to find out just how many people dislike creepy-crawlies. A whopping 63.1% said they can’t stand the little guys.  Take a look at their reasons why and find out Japan’s most hated bug.

Read More

Young People Speak Out: Recent Survey Suggests That Japan’s Older Generation’s Manners Stink

Young People Speak Out: Recent Survey Suggests That Japan’s Older Generation’s Manners Stink

While walking home from the station last weekend, eyes glued to my mobile phone as is my own particular vice, I suddenly found myself enveloped by vast plumes of cigarette smoke. Looking ahead of me, a guy in a business suit walking in the same direction had lit up a cig and was merrily puffing away, obviously in need of a hit having just disembarked a train himself.

While I’m definitely one of the anti-smoking set, I have absolutely no problem with other people smoking if they want to- just so long as it doesn’t affect the people around them. For me, smoking is like farting; go ahead and enjoy your own, but please don’t share with everyone else.

Breaking into a little jog, I overtook the smoker- a man in his late fifties wearing a business suit- and, once again able to breathe freely, walked up-wind of him.

No sooner had I done so that a second man, a little older this time, emerged from a side street. He blew his nose noisily on a handkerchief and stuffed it into his coat pocket, at which point he coughed, sniffed and, with what sounded like a tremendous physical effort, spat something brown out onto the pavement just a few feet ahead of me.

Quite forgetting myself, I muttered “kitanai naa” (“man, that’s dirty…”) a little too loudly, but received little more than a quick, disinterested glance from the man as he passed by.

So when I came across an article over on NicoNico News titled “Senior Citizens Have Worse Manners Than Young People”, I couldn’t help but feel that it might be on to something…

Read More

  2. 1
  3. 2