世論 What Japan Thinks

Whilst I get in contact with the winners of each group, I’ll do mini-reviews of all the blogs that didn’t quite make it.

Trans-Pacific Radio: In second place was the only PodCast I listen to, TPR. They cover Japanese politics in their core show, but also foray into business issues in BizCast Japan. I’m glad, I suppose, that they didn’t win as I’m such a big fan it would have seemed like a fix. Despite the Debito-supplied Duran Duran I listen to every show and you should too.

Japan Probe: One of the top entertainment blogs on Japan, but one that also tries to educate. James has a great eye for a story and has amassed a good selection of contributors to the blog without losing focus. There’s so much good material that this is another must read site.

JapanNewbie.com: This is a new-to-me blog, but the latest post today on Donald L Philippi was most interesting, and there’s a lot of other good content to be found. I’ve added this one to my reading list.

Daily J: This blog is centred around Japan blogger interviews, and is trying to foster, no, make that build a Japanese blogger community, something I feel should exist, and I hope that this Japan Blog of the Year vote has somehow helped towards that goal. Oh yes, and about the Japan Blog Matsuri – I have an alternative yet cunning plan, and I’ll have to talk to you soon regarding one or the other matsuris!

On a side note, one thing I noticed about all four blogs is that their RSS feeds are well-hidden! Japan Newbie’s was the only one appearing above the fold (ie, appearing on the page without scrolling) although it does look a little lonely sitting all alone there; on the other hand Daily J does have a newsletter within easy reach.

First, thank you to everyone who voted, and thank you to everyone who nominated or commented in the threads. I hope you all found it interesting and have added a few new blogs to your reading list; I’ve enjoyed running this, so it would be nice to try to make this an annual feature.

Second, this is just a summary of the winners; over the slow New Year period, and once I get some comment from the winners, I’ll review the winners in detail and the candidates in summary, and work out how to distribute the prizes, etc. In addition, I will also select a bonus winner from amongst the commenters in the voting and the nomination thread.

So, without any further ado, here are the winners:

Best serious Japan blog of the year – Observing Japan

Observing Japan wins for its detailed coverage of the political scene, as one of the growing number of blogs looking into aspects of Japan that rarely get aired in English.

Best humourous Japan blog of the year – tofugu.com

tofugu.com takes a multimedia look at Japan, and its YouTube coverage of this poll was responsible for driving a lot of votes here.

Best culture Japan blog of the year – Let’s Japan.org

Let’s Japan.org wins, a fit reward for being a key gathering point for those disgruntled at the meltdown at Nova, and perhaps with less swearing it may even have been in line for the best serious blog!

Best technology Japan blog of the year – Pink Tentacle

Pink Tentacle takes a slightly sideways look at technology in Japan, and I read it to study the style and to pinch writing tips!

Best personal Japan blog of the year – My So-Called Japanese Life

My So-Called Japanese Life has excellent writing, and is a most deserving winner in this section.

With the end of the year approaching, let’s look back at another year of What Japan Thinks and highlight some of the more interesting facts and figures I have learnt about this year through the many surveys presented on this blog. So, without further ado, here are 26 statistics from 2007. Click through the link after the data to view the original post.

Advertising

Almost a third of those who have seen a search term on a television advertisement have actually performed a search for it.
Source

from Greg Palmer at flickr

Billy Blanks

Over 99% of women between 20 and 49 has at least heard Billy Blanks’ name.
Source

Cinema

Star Wars is men’s all-time favourite movie, Pirates of the Carribean women’s.
Source

Dialup

Just 1.4% of surveyed users access the internet from home via a bog-standard telephone analogue dialup line.
Source

Earthquakes

27.6% of Japanese keep a full bath-tub of water just in case of earthquakes.
Source
Read the rest of this entry »

As promised, here are reviews of the blogs that didn’t make the cut for the First Annual (anyone wish to sponsor thm?) Japan Blog of the Year Awards, roughly in the order that they were nominated. Reviews of the candidates will take place after voting finishes. Please remember to vote by midnight tonight, Christmas Eve, and remember that all commenters on that thread will be eligible for a drawing for a small prize!

By popular demand, here are two more late nominees that came too late after the final cut had been made:

Gaijin Smash: A massive troll about life in Japan. It doesn’t do anything for me, but he seems to have a massive fan base. Give it a read, you’ll either love hit or hate it!

Kid Ethnic: The absolutely new-to-me blog is rather infrequently updated, but it fair tickles my fancy. This one on Shinjo flogging coffee made me laugh out lond!

As promised, here are reviews of the blogs that didn’t make the cut for the First Annual (anyone wish to sponsor thm?) Japan Blog of the Year Awards, roughly in the order that they were nominated. Reviews of the candidates will take place after voting finishes. Please remember to vote, and remember that all commenters on that thread will be eligible for a drawing for a small prize!

RisingSunOfNihon: A blog about Japanese industry on the whole, with the occasional blatent search engine bait chucked in!

Keeping Pace in Japan: Interesting personal blog on running, politics, and life in general.

Chris’s English School. Yanai, Japan: Perhaps I need a new computer or browser, but pages with static background images are painful for me to scroll! Lots of pictures of Japanese kids learning English.

NihonHacks: I must admit to being a big fan of the site and I wanted to include it in the list of blogs to vote for, but… I wish I’d thought of this blog – great tips on how to live more frugally or more effectively in Japan.

As promised, here are reviews of the blogs that didn’t make the cut for the First Annual (anyone wish to sponsor thm?) Japan Blog of the Year Awards, roughly in the order that they were nominated. Reviews of the candidates will take place after voting finishes. Please remember to vote, and remember that all commenters on that thread will be eligible for a drawing for a small prize!

Herro Flom Japan: I must admit that the name really grates on me! This is the very first (probably) podcast from Japan, and it’s now expanding into video too. I downloaded the latest podcast, recorded whilst walking through Tokyo; interesting talk, but also interesting background noises which were in fact rather distracting, but also fascinating trying to imagine where he was walking through!

Geisha, Interrupted: Interesting personal blog about life in Japan as a translator. I found this post rather thought-provoking.

Japan Focus: Not really a blog as such, but since someone nominated it, I’ll mention it regardless. A set of scholarly (and sometimes not so scholarly) articles on issues related to Japan.

LongCountdown.com: The first article had some interesting stuff on networking with other Japanese bloggers; I understand that everyone wants to get they eyeballs, but the problem is having too many networking opportunities – for instance there’s at least three English-language Japanese blog social bookmarking/digg-like things but each with only one or two votes per story.

As promised, here are reviews of the blogs that didn’t make the cut for the First Annual (perhaps) Japan Blog of the Year Awards, roughly in the order that they were nominated. Reviews of the candidates will take place after voting finishes. Please remember to vote, and remember that all commenters on that thread will be eligible for a drawing for a small prize!

Shisaku: Politics with a cynical edge.

Global Talk 21: Sketch-writer style blogging on Japanese politics. Very interesting, and another blog I’ve added to my RSS reader thanks to this.

Japan Economy News: Ken’s got a really interesting (only if you’re into economics, of course) blog regarding news of the Japanese economy, not surprisingly. Not everyone’s cup of tea I would guess, but he’s also got an excellent magazine-style template that I’m busy trying to win a free copy of! (They may not actually be the same template, but they look closely related)

The Hopeless Romantic: Random thoughts on living in Japan.

As promised, and in the spirit of Xmas/Hanukkah/Festivus/we-respect-Jesus-in-a-Buddhist-sort-of-way, here are reviews of the blogs that didn’t make the cut for the First Annual (perhaps) Japan Blog of the Year Awards, roughly in the order that they were nominated. Reviews of the candidates will take place after voting finishes. Please remember to vote, and remember that all commenters on that thread will be eligible for a drawing for a small prize!

Neojaponisme: Reading this blog makes my brain hurt, but in a good way. I also suspect that there is some great underlying in-joke behind the site, but I just can’t quite see it. However, there’s one great article on the front page about concrete facades that you see everywhere in Japan, and which I dislike intensely, so it was interesting to learn how they came to be and how they are seen.

Japankino: It’s in German and it’s about Japanese film. Sadly, that’s as much as I can tell you about it!

News.3Yen.com: I love Taro’s use of Photoshop on the stories, and I did think that the whale hats were an example of that, but it does seem to be real! A quirky look at the lighter side of Japan. This blog always seems to be under the radar for some reason, and I feel it should be more popular than it appears to be. Maybe it’s just that I don’t see it popping up in the Google searches that I do?

Once Upon A Tokyo: A personal blog of an English teacher working in a Tokyo school, mostly featuring stories on strange or fun items found in Japan.

VOTING IS NOW COMPLETE! Update: 25th December. Thank you everyone, and I’ll be contacting the winners individually and posting reviews all the candidates. Thanks again for all the votes, and I hope you all enjoyed the friendly competition, and you’ve all found a new blog or three to read.

I’ve totted up the nominations from both the comments sections and email, and after a complex process involving lots of beer and a dartboard, I’ve come up with the following nominations for each category. Winners in each category will be awarded some yet to be decided goods with the upcoming new What Japan Thinks logo on them, once I get round to setting up a Cafe Press shop. If anyone wishes to donate any more stash in return for some publicity, please get in touch!

To encourage you all to vote, I’ll also be giving away similar logoed gifts to randomly-selected posters, so post your thoughts on the candidates, or on who you think should be there, and I’ll select one (or perhaps more) commenter at random and contact them via their email address. Voting will be open until midnight on Christmas Eve (or so) and the winners announced on Christmas Day, assuming I don’t stuff myself too silly on turkey-effect tofu steaks…

Thanks to everyone who nominated, and there’s a few blogs new to me here and in the nominations that I’ll write short reviews of this week.

Thanks for all your nominations by mail and in the comments for the previous post! This evening I’ll tot up the nominations and come up with the top five in each category:

Best serious blog on Japan
Best humourous (or look at the lighter side) blog on Japan
Best culture blog on Japan
Best technology blog on Japan
Best personal blog on Japan

So, if you haven’t nominated yet, please do so soon. Note that I will be offering prizes to the winners of each category.