The number one biography is 'Ichiro,' and the most popular among children is 'From Great Man to Hero.'
by
The Mainichi Shimbun has announced the results of its 57th School Reading Survey. This time, the survey included a question about reading biographies, and it was revealed that the most popular biography was 'Ichiro.'
As pointed out in a 2010 survey by the Asahi Shimbun, the popularity of biographies clearly shows a trend of 'from great people to heroes and heroines,' making for an interesting result.
Special Feature: 57th School Reading Survey (Part 1) - Higher Grades Are More 'Moving' - Mainichi JP (Mainichi Shimbun)
asahi.com (Asahi Shimbun): Biographies of Great People: Changing Faces, Popularity Ranking: Hideyo Noguchi Out, Ichiro In - Education
◆ Changes in the number of non-readers
The percentage of 'non-readers,' those who did not read a single book during the survey month, remained stable. For elementary school students, it was 6%, roughly the same level as in 1980, and down 10 percentage points from 16.4% in 2000. For junior high school students, it was 16%, up 3 points from last year, but still very low compared to 37.3% in 1980. For high school students, it was 51%, roughly the same level as 49.0% in 1980.
The graph below shows the trend in non-readers from 1980 to 2010. Click to see a larger image.
Magazine reading volume hits record low
The average number of magazines read per month is 4.9 for elementary school students, 3.3 for junior high school students, and 2.4 for high school students. This is the lowest figure ever for junior high and high school students, and for elementary school students it has halved from the peak of 9.3 in 1986. According to an analysis by the Mainichi Shimbun, this is thought to be due to a decline in manga magazine subscriptions caused by the spread of the Internet and the ability to buy and sell comics at second-hand bookstores.
The graph below shows the average amount of magazine reading from 2001 to 2011.
◆ 'Popular Biography' Elementary School Boy
An interesting question was, 'Of all the biographies you have read, whose is the best?' Surprisingly, this year, Ichiro came in first place in a survey of elementary school boys. By comparison, Ichiro was ranked 10th in last year's survey.
1st place: Ichiro
2nd place: Edison
3rd place: Ryoma Sakamoto
4th place: Oda Nobunaga
4th place: Hideyo Noguchi *Tied for 4th place
Ichiro came in first place.
◆ 'Popular Biography' Elementary School Girls
Lena Maria is ranked 4th among elementary school girls. Lena Maria is a gospel singer from Sweden, born in 1968. Although she was born without arms and with a left leg that was only half the length of her right, she competed as a swimmer at the Seoul Paralympics and later turned to music, performing concerts all over the world.
1st place: Helen Keller
2nd place: Mother Teresa
3rd place: Nightingale
4th place: Lena Maria
5th place: Anne Frank
Helen Keller was the most popular among girls.
◆ 'Popular Biographies' Elementary school students from 1977 to 1979 (mixed gender)
According to a survey by the Asahi Shimbun, the popularity rankings from 1977 to 1979 were as follows: Noguchi Hideyo was in first place.
1st place: Hideyo Noguchi
2nd place: Edison
3rd place: Helen Keller
4th place: Babe Ruth
5th place: Nightingale
6th place: Madame Curie
7th place: Lincoln
8th place: Tokugawa Ieyasu, Toyotomi Hideyoshi
9th place: Beethoven
10th place: Kinjiro Ninomiya
Hideyo Noguchi was the most popular biography from 1977 to 1979.
Comparing the results from the 1970s and 2011, in 2011, besides Ichiro, Sakamoto Ryoma was ranked third, and Oda Nobunaga came in fourth, ahead of Tokugawa Ieyasu and Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
What did you like about the biography?
The 2011 survey also included a question about the biography they read, asking, 'What did you think was good about it?' The percentages of responses were as follows:
In this way, so-called 'virtue' aspects such as 'honesty' and 'fairness to people' are rated low, and it seems that achievements and contributions to humanity such as 'innovative ideas' and 'inventions and discoveries' are not given much importance.
In a 2010 interview with Shueisha by the Asahi Shimbun , Izawa Akio, who is in charge of children's books at Shueisha, described the change in children's tastes as 'rather than being forced by adults to tell stories about people who are excellent in all aspects, they are simply looking for heroes and heroines,' and this trend appears to be reflected directly. The Asahi Shimbun article stated that 'boys are heroes, girls are great people,' and considering that Lena Maria was ranked in this year's results, it can be said that this trend is beginning to show up among girls as well.
Related Posts:
