Recently goo Ranking, a Japan public opinion survey organisation, posted the results of a look at the political world from a rather interesting angle. The respondents were asked to choose their most good-looking world politician or leader in a poll conducted between the 25th and 27th of September 2007. Note that this poll drew its sample from the goo Research monitor pool, so there would be little or no opportunity for ballot stuffing. 100 points are awarded to the top vote-getter, and the other scores are the percentage of votes of the winner that each of the rest received. By sex, the votes were very similar, although Tony Blair won more female hearts than Shintaro Ishihara.
I find it surprising that Bill Clinton (or even Al Gore) doesn’t appear anywhere, however, and personally I’d have voted for Nelson Mandela, another curious omission. Read the rest of this entry »
I had one of these “you know you’ve been in Japan too long” moments reading this list, as for three or four of them I had to stop and think if they really were Japanese inventions, 和製英語, wasei eigo, Japanese-style English! How many of these expressions that the Japanese didn’t know were Japanese-English, as reported by goo Ranking, did you have to mentally double-check? The survey was conducted between the 28th and 30th of August 2007. Read the rest of this entry »
Just a couple of days ago there was a report from Reuters on a forthcoming Daddy exam for Japanese fathers to hone their parenting skills on. Looking around the Japanese web I found many weird and wonderful exams and qualifications, or 検定, kentei as they are called in Japaneseso for your enjoyment and edification I present the top ten strangest qualificatons I came across!
10. Mount Fuji Master
As the Japanese proverb says, “He who climbs Mount Fuji once is a wise man, he who climbs it twice is a fool.” Perhaps there should be an extension to cover those who sit all three levels of the Mount Fuji Kentei? Whether or not any of the questions involve the vending machines at the top of the mountain is unknown.
9. Comic Certification
I suppose it is inevitable that there is a manga-based examination. This one by ebook Japan offers three levels of certification in the way of Japanese comics from beginner to master otaku. If the subject matter is too broad, they offer separate qualifications for specific comic book series from Princess Princess to Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro. Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s another entertaining find from goo Ranking, this time the top ten actions that women think makes men look manly. The fieldwork was conducted between the 20th and 24th of July 2007, but as usual no further demographic information was available.
Sadly there is no guys rating women equivalent of this survey published yet, but if it appears I’ll be sure to report on it.
I thought that smoking activities were rather high on the list, and does choosing a drink for the ladies really impress them? Quite frankly, most of the answers are characteristics I might expect to see in hosts, not the average guy. Perhaps these results go some way to explain why host bars exist? Read the rest of this entry »
There’s been a terrible electrical storm here tonight, so no time to translate, so instead here’s a fun wee site called 脳内メーカー, Nounai me-ka-, or to translate literally, Brain Insides Maker that I saw on television a wee while ago, but due perhaps to overwhelming popularity, I’ve been unable to access it until recently. Based on your name, this site diagnoses what your brain consists of. To illustrate, here is me, Ken Y-N:
The blue kanji around the outside are worries, and the solitary purple character in the middle is my crime.
You can also diagnose compatability in couples. Here is perhaps the most famous Japanese (well, she’s ex-Japanese now) and gaijin pairing, John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s brains:
The blue front of John’s brain is his wants, the gold pushed to the back is money, and the mass of purple Hs are for hentai, or perversion. Yoko’s brain, on the other hand, is full of nothing.
Other options are to find out your brain in a previous existence and what fetishs you might have. The site also works from mobile phones, but you might have to squint a bit to make out the pictures on them.
UPDATE: Mari’s diary also posted about Brain Maker, including a translation of all the kanji used to help those of you who can’t read Japanese.
PS: Just a quick reminder that you might also like to visit the not as impressive as the above My Buddhist Name for some Buddhism-related sillyness from me.
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:
This is probably the strangest survey I’ve translated since my one on the top folklore and superstitions. This time we look with goo Ranking at the urban legends that might just be true. As I am no expert in Japanese rumours, some of the translations may be wrong, and some of the rumours just seem rather odd, but I hope my readers can help me out. The survey was conducted between the 19th and 21st of June 2007.
I thought that fan death was interesting – this is a popular legend in Korea, but I didn’t know anyone really took it seriously in Japan. Perhaps interestingly, number 10, skin breathing, comes from the Bond film Goldfinger. Ian Fleming invented other such rumours, for example the one about Sumo wrestlers being trained to retract their testicles, and that gay people cannot whistle. Finally, I’d be shocked, quite frankly, if there wasn’t a bomb shelter underneath the Diet! Perhaps, however, the rumours go further.
…of in the summer, just to finish off the dangling headline. I’m back from my holidays, and back to stupidly hot temperatures around double of what I left back in the UK and Germany, so to tie in with the hot and humid weather right now (and it’s going to get a lot hotter and more humid before it’s done) let’s look with goo Ranking at what summer smells people hate. As usual for these ranking surveys, demographic information is not available, just that on the 22nd and 23rd of May a number of members of the goo Research monitor group completed an online survey on this topic.
One may notice that the top pong, body odour, relates to one of these things that foreigners hear (perhaps only from other foreigners?) about how the Japanese don’t sweat.
Finally, the kanji used in the headline, 悪臭, akushuu, consists of two kanji for bad and smell, and means exactly that. Read the rest of this entry »
Recently goo Ranking, a Japan public opinion survey organisation, posted the results of a look at the political world from a rather interesting angle. The respondents were asked to choose their most good-looking world politician or leader in a poll conducted between the 25th and 27th of September 2007. Note that this poll drew its sample from the goo Research monitor pool, so there would be little or no opportunity for ballot stuffing. 100 points are awarded to the top vote-getter, and the other scores are the percentage of votes of the winner that each of the rest received. By sex, the votes were very similar, although Tony Blair won more female hearts than Shintaro Ishihara.
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