NHK BCRI's Website: Are You in the Mainstream or Minority?

Trial Survey of the Contemporary Japanese Language

September 2004

Some words and phrases dramatically change with times, while others rarely do.
Whenever I study or delve into a word or phrase, I come up with a desire or anxiety. That is, a desire to understand the currant state of the Japanese language as soon and as accurately as possible.
In an attempt to grasp the trend of the Japanese language quickly and effectively with questionnaire via the Internet, we started the quiz series, “Are You in the Mainstream or Minority?” in “Japanese Language Test” in our Bunken website.

We knew that asking visitors to our website to answer questions would not always attract their attention.

So, in May 2002, we opened questionnaire pages named “Japanese Language Test.” Every month we challenge the visitors with different questions, including ones that we really want to look into, so that the visitors can enjoy the quiz like a game.

In April 2003 we established another independent section of questionnaire, “Are You in the Mainstream or Minority?” adding to “Common Knowledge of the Japanese Language” and “Chinese Character Test” to ask visitors to answer 5 to 6 questions every month.

We ask respondents' sex, age, and vocation to analyze the results of the quiz.

This month we analyze the questionnaires, which we started on an Internet trial basis, as well as our future tasks.

Why don't you try “Are You in the Mainstream or Minority?”

Click here for the “Japanese Language Test” (only in Japanese):

Mitsuru SAKAMOTO, NHK BCRI Broadcasting Research
The NHK Monthly Report on Broadcast Research