世論 What Japan Thinks

It’s coming up to the New Year, and one of the traditional television events is NHK’s Kohaku Uta Gassen, or the Red and White Song Contest, where a team of male singers and male-fronted groups compete against the female side in an excuse to highlight the popular music of the year, both pops and the traditional Enka form. There’s usually about twenty to thirty acts per side and the whole affair starts around 7 pm and continues until just before midnight. However, this year the satellite channel BS11 is showing the Anison Kohaku 2009, Red and White Animation Song 2009 at the same time, so iShare decided to conduct a survey into New Year song contest viewing plans.

Demographics

Between the 27th of November and the 2nd of December 2009 515 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.4% of the sample were male, 31.5% in their twenties, 33.0% in their thirties, and 35.5% in their forties.

I’ll probably end up watching about half of NHK’s Kohaku. One interesting feature this year is the appearance of Yutaka Oe, a young Enka singer infatuated with the legendary Saburo Kitajima, and who got his break through Sanma’s Karakuri Television, where he often appears bumbling his way through his singing career. One line I remember was when he got taken out for dinner with people from his record label; they went to a Chinese and were served a whole roast chicken, whereupon he asked the waiter in all innocence if it was a small dog.

I can compare his career to Susan Boyle’s, as there was a lot of talk in her case that she had some form of learning difficulty and there has been many feeling she has been exploited. However, in Yutaka Oe’s case, when he was a child he was involved in a traffic accident, suffered brain damage and missed much of his schooling, yet even his illiteracy has been the butt of jokes.

Here’s a YouTube video of him in action, but as embedding is disabled, please follow this link.

He’s throwing the opening ball at a baseball match, but he wore his right-handed glove instead of his left, which explains his first pitch..

Research results

Q1: Do you like Japanese music? (Sample size=515)

	All	Male N=280	Female N=235
Love it	15.3%	13.2%	17.9%
Like it	49.7%	46.8%	53.2%
Dislike it	19.8%	21.1%	18.3%
Hate it	15.1%	18.9%	10.6%

Q2: When you were in elementary school or younger, did you watch the NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen? (Sample size=515)

	All	Male N=280	Female N=235
Yes, every year	36.3%	30.4%	43.4%
Yes, most years	34.0%	32.1%	36.2%
Yes, some years	17.7%	21.4%	13.2%
No, never	12.0%	16.1%	7.2%

There was a very definite correlation between liking Japanese music and watching the Kohaku every year as a kid, but what the causation factor is, I don’t know.

Q3: Since becoming an adult do you watch the NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen? (Sample size=515)

	All	Male N=280	Female N=235
Yes, every year	10.3%	7.5%	13.6%
Yes, most years	28.3%	22.9%	34.9%
Yes, some years	40.2%	45.4%	34.0%
No, never	21.2%	24.3%	17.4%

There is also a correlation between watching the Kohaku as a kid and as an adult, but the relationship there is easier to understand.

Q4: Do you plan to watch at least some of the NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen this year? (Sample size=515)

	All	Male N=280	Female N=235
Definitely watch	8.3%	6.1%	11.1%
Think I’ll watch	38.6%	33.2%	45.1%
Don’t think I’ll watch	37.9%	42.5%	32.3%
Definitely not watch	15.1%	18.2%	11.5%

There’s also a correlation between liking Japanese music and planning to watch the show.

Q5: Do you like animation theme songs? (Sample size=515)

	All	Male N=280	Female N=235
Love them	11.7%	11.4%	11.9%
Like them	34.8%	33.6%	36.2%
Dislike them	30.7%	28.9%	32.8%
Hate them	22.9%	26.1%	19.1%

Q6: Did you know that the Anison Kohaku 2009 is being held and will be broadcast on BS11? (Sample size=515)

	All	Male N=280	Female N=235
Yes	12.2%	12.5%	11.9%
No	87.8%	87.5%	88.1%

Q7: If you had the equipment necessary, would you like to watch the Anisong Kohaku 2009? (Sample size=515)

	All	Male N=280	Female N=235
Really want to watch	7.8%	8.2%	7.2%
Want to watch if I have a chance	27.4%	26.1%	28.9%
Don’t really want to watch	27.6%	25.4%	30.2%
Don’t want to watch at all	37.3%	40.4%	33.6%