世論 What Japan Thinks

japan.internet.com recently released an opinion poll, performed in conjuction with goo Research, to see what people thought about the novelisation (or novelization, if you prefer) of blogs and other web contents. 1,013 people completed their internet-based questionnaire, with 60.4% female. 27.0% of the respondents were in their twenties, 42.7% in their thirties, 23.9% in their forties, and 6.4% in their fifties.

When a similar survey was carried out a year ago, during the height of the “Densha Otoko” boom, 35.0% of the people surveyed then said they would want to buy a novelisation of a blog.

I can’t say I’ve come across any blogs I’d like to see as a book, although having said that I don’t follow any regular diary-like narrative-based blogs, which would seem to be the best material for making into a book.

Q1: Do you think you’d want to buy the novelisation of a blog? (Sample size=1,013)

Want to buy	19.6%
Don’t want to buy	80.4%

When asked if they had ever bought a novelisation, just 43 people (4.2%) said they had. The top three titles were “生協の白石さん”, “seikyou no Shiraishi san”, “Mr Shiraishi of the Co-op”, (apparently a bunch of humourous answers to students’ questions) with 12 purchasers, “実録鬼嫁日記”, “jitsuroku oniyome nikki”, “The True Diary of a Demonic Wife” with seven buyers, “眞鍋かをりのココだけの話”, “Wanabe Kaori no koko dake no hanashi”? “Kaori Wanabe Talks Here Only” with five sales.

Q2: What sort of blog would you want to be novelised? (Sample size=1,013, multiple answer)

One whose field I’m interested in	57.6%
One whose contents may be interesting	51.0%
One that seems useful for work	20.6%
One with a famous author	13.9%
Other	7.0%

Q3: If you were authoring a blog, do you think you would want it to be novelised? (Sample size=1,013)

Yes	22.9%
No	77.1%