Friday 1 March 2013

Japanese TV dramas are as popular today as they have ever been by Yukie T


Sixty years has passed since television broadcasting started in Japan. Now, most people think television has lost the power due to decrease of an audience rating. However I don’t think so. Today, I choose dramas from various types of television programs. In my opinion, Japanese television dramas are as popular today as they have ever been. There are two main reasons for this. First, because the style of watching television has been changing, we can’t accurate survey popularity due to an audience rating. Second, some present popular dramas take over particularities same as past popular dramas.
              First, because the style of watching television has been changing, we can’t accurate survey popularity due to an audience rating. There are two changes. First, people came to record dramas. According to an article from the Asahi newspaper entitled “dorama ha rokuga kukkiri”[i], dramas was obviously recorded and watched later more than other types of programs. It says in some program, percentage of people recording and watching later was higher than percentage of people watching on time. From this result, we know that many people want to spend time to watch dramas. Second, people came to talk about drama on the Internet. The writer of an article from AERA entitled “seizyuku SNS de sinbiziness“[ii], wrote about a running commentary of drama on SNS. It says “In Tairano kiyomori which recorded the lowest audience rating of long-running historical drama series on NHK, a running commentary on Twitter livened up.” This example indicates people want to share impressions of dramas with others and love dramas more.
Second, some present popular dramas take over particularities same as past popular dramas. Some dramas get high audience rating as popular today as have ever been even if we can’t accurate survey popularity due to an audience rating. These dramas have same particularities which past popular dramas had. Lately, there was a drama which got one of the highest audience ratings in history. It was “Kaseihu no Mita” broadcasted in autumn 2011. Its first episode got 19.5%, then gradually raised, the final episode got 40.0% as same as third of the highest audience ratings in genre of ordinary drama[iii] [iv]. Mita has two particularities for popularity which is word of mouth and particular phrase same as past popular dramas. First particularity is word of mouth. Today, our interesting branch off various things, so chances to recommend other person something decrease. However, about Mita, most audience said “It is very interesting! You should watch it!” Second, it had particular phrase. A cleaning lady Mita: heroine said “Certainly” to all wish, in Japanese “syouchisimasita”. This phrase made a boom that day and has been remembered. These two particularities are same as past popular dramas, “101times propose”, “GOODLUCK”,”Kids war”.
To conclude, Japanese television dramas are as popular today as they have ever been. Now, the style of watching television has been changing, we can’t survey correct popularity due to an audience rating. Furthermore, some present popular dramas take over particularities same as past popular dramas. I believe however the style of watching television has been changing, drama’s contents which people want to watch and actually drama’s content hasn’t changed. I think an audience rating is important measure of popularity, but new measure which accord to present condition is need.



[i] January 31, 2013, “朝日新聞”, morning edition page1

[ii] February 18, 2013, “AERA”, 27-29

[iii] Video Research Ltd. “週間高視聴率番組10 Vol.42 2011”. Retrieved February 15, 2013

[iv] Video Research Ltd. “ドラマ高世帯視聴率番組30”, December 28th 2011.Retrieved February 15, 2013 website :http://www.videor.co.jp/data/ratedata/junre/01drama.html