世論 What Japan Thinks

As I work in the Osaka area, the outcome of the Osaka prefectural governor election (this Sunday 27th January 2008) will have some effect on me, and with some guy off the telly as the front-runner, I sincerely hope he won’t turn out to be another Hideo Higashikokubaru (Sonomanma Higashi) and appear on the box every night. In his defense, I saw that over the first year of his governorship he has been credited with giving the local economy a 100 billion yen (1 billion US dollar) boost

The first figure that the report from the Yomiuri Shimbun picked up on was the intention to vote. A healthy two in three said they would definitely turn out, with slightly more men that women saying they would vote. By age group, 78% of the over-seventies would definitely be voting, with 69% of those in their fifties would also definitely vote. However, only 43% of those in their twenties had definite plans, although another 49% said they’d try to vote, making 92% in total of all young people who might participate in the vote.
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If you’ve ever lived in the Kansai area of Japan, you’ll surely have heard of the reputation of Osaka old ladies for their distinctive characteristics such as… Well, let’s just see what comes to mind when the Japanese think of Osaka grannies in this fun survey from goo Ranking. The fieldwork was done between the 19th and 21st of June 2007 amongst people from all over Japan.

KANJANI8 (or 関ジャニ∞ to use their Japanese name) sing a song “Osaka Obachan (old lady/granny) Rock” that can be viewed here, assuming it doesn’t get pulled due to copyright violations:

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=9h8T7Ec___o
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