The pride of Japan
The following are the results of a survey by Oricon in which 2,000 people in Japan were asked which Japanese celebrity brings the greatest pride to the nation on an international scale.
Men
1. Ichiro Suzuki (Baseball player)
2. Ken Watanabe (Actor)
3. Takeshi Kitano (Director)
4. Takuya Kimura (SMAP member)
5. Hideki Matsui (Baseball player)
6. Shunsuke Nakamura (Soccer player)
7. Hidetoshi Nakata (Soccer player, retired)
8. Hayao Miyazaki (Director)
9. Kazunari Ninomiya (Arashi member)
10. Akira Kurosawa (Director, deceased)
Women
1. Sayuri Yoshinaga (Actress)
1. Rinko Kikuchi (Actress)
3. Hikaru Utada (Pop star)
4. Ayumi Hamasaki (J-pop singer)
4. Ryoko Tani (Judo)
5. Tetsuko Kuroyanagi (Entertainer)
6. Riyo Mori (Miss Universe 2007)
7. Shizuko Arakawa (Olympic gold medal figure skater)
8. Yoko Ono (Beatle babe)
9. Sadako Ogata (President, Japan International Cooperation Agency)
10. Mao Asada (Figure skater)
It appears a large number of people have an unsurprisingly skewed perception of who is even known outside these islands.
I may be wrong, but Takuya Kimura? Probably some impact in Korea, but the rest of the world? Sayuri Yoshinaga at #1? I had to go and look the name (and others) up. But perhaps it’s not the respondants - it might just be me living in a bubble.
September 7th, 2007 at 9:07 amI thought Yoko Ono was generally disliked in Japan, how did she make the list? But Momofuku Ando definitely belongs in there somewhere. XD
September 7th, 2007 at 10:11 amIt’s interesting seeing the sort of jobs held by the women held in this survey compared to the men. The women are mostly entertainers, while the men are mostly athletes.
I’m surprised Yoko Ono “brings the greatest pride to the nation on an international scale” considering how a lot of Beatles fans feel about her.
September 7th, 2007 at 10:18 amAs someone somewhere on the low end of the international scale [insert snarky emoticon], lemme just say that aside from the baseball players, the dead guy and Ono, *no one* I showed the list to (and I’m in a pretty ‘international’ office and include myself in *no one*) recognized anyone… and the only reason the ball players made it is ’cause I watch baseball.
It’d be interesting to see who these 2,000 people were - teens and young airheads hanging out at the mall, perhaps?
No. I hate to say it but from my end of the world, Japan just doesn’t represent, yo, [insert ghetto-esque italic font] on an international scale.
What would be interesting is to ask a group of people in a couple of cities in Europe, North America, South America (hell… Central America), perhaps a ville or deux in the Middle East regions and Australia if they can name even 5 Japanese people, dead or alive.
I doubt the vast majority of places could and them that would try would go for Honda, Toyota, Godzilla and Sony… and then run away giggling.
September 7th, 2007 at 11:38 amMiyazaki on 8th??? Damn!! Thought he had a lot more influence. I’m at least glad Utada kicks Ayumi’s ass, altho it’s only for 1 spot :S
but Riyo Mori in the list??? Wahaha oh ocmon u must be jokin.
It’s also strange that I don’t see any formula 1 or motogp drivers in the list…
September 7th, 2007 at 5:40 pmThis is Oricon survey. These names represent what ordinary Japanese today are interested in. And many of them are unknown outside Japan. Probably only Akira Kurosawa (Film Director) or Sadako Ogata (Activist) deserve on this list.
If you refer to ” known on an international scale ” Puffy AmiYumi is a popular pop icon for teenagers in the world. You can see it on message board in this site. http://www.puffyamiyumi.com/
Watch ” Basket Case ” by Green Day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8Y3qDDODT0&mode=related&search
Now ” Basket Case ” by Puffy (Live)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU1QZojCOfk&mode=related&search
Also ” Basket Case ” by Avril Lavigne (Live)
September 8th, 2007 at 8:42 amhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7o9FRkhXP8&mode=related&search
[...] just spotted an interesting survey from Japundit on who the Japanese think do the nation proud internationally. The original from Oricon can be found here, where it says that the fieldwork was conducted between [...]
September 8th, 2007 at 10:37 am[...] An interesting look at Japanese as well as Korean aircraft carrier programs.- Here is a survey that lists the Top Ten men and women in Japan that bring the most pride to the nation [...]
September 9th, 2007 at 9:40 amI’m not surprised Takuya Kimura was on the males’list. He has been the most popular japanese artist for ten years in East Asia, receiving recognition aisawide overseas as King of Japanese dramas, people don’t even know he is a member of a boyband. He is idol of many Asia stars as well.
I’m sure Japanese people think he’s more than just another pretty face:
September 30th, 2007 at 11:24 pmhttp://www.dims.ne.jp/timelyresearch/2007/070619/