"Ichiro" in 1st place, biography popular among children "from great to hero"

ByIsaac Feliu

The Mainichi Shimbun announced the result of "The 57th School Reading Survey". In this survey, question items related to reading of "biographies" were established, and it became clear that the number one in popular biographies is "Ichiro."

As pointed out in the survey of the Asahi Shimbun company in 2010, biography is popular"From great to hero and heroine"There is a tendency that the tendency has come true, which is an interesting result.

Special Feature: The 57th School Reading Survey (Part 1) "Grumpy" as Elementary School Year - Everyday jp (Mainichi Shimbun)

Asahi.com (Asahi Shimbun): Changing great biographies Changing face Popularity Top Noguchi Hideyo Ichiro Entering - Education

◆ Changes in the number of unreadees
The percentage of "unreaders" who did not read one book during the survey month showed stable figures. Elementary school students are about the same level as 6% and 1980, down 10% from 16.4% in 2000. Junior high school students are 16%, which is 3 points higher than last year, but it is very low figure from 37.3% in 1980. High school students are 51%, which is also the same level as 49.0% in 1980.

The figure below shows the trend of unreadees from 1980 to 2010. You can see the image enlarged by clicking.


◆ The amount of reading of magazines is the lowest ever
The average reading reading per month for journals is 4.9 in elementary school students, 3.3 in junior high school students, 2.4 in high school students. For junior high and high school students, it is the lowest number ever, and for elementary school students, it is reduced by half from the highest value of 9.3 in 1986. According to Mainichi Shimbun's analysis, it seems that it is thought that it is due to the spread of the Internet and the subscription of comic books due to comics being able to buy and sell at Shinko Bookstore.

The figure below shows the trend of average reading value of magazines from 2001 to 2011.


◆ "Biography of popularity" elementary school boys
What is interesting is the question "Whose biography is the best thing you ever read in the biography you read?" This year, Ichiro ranked first in the survey with elementary school boy. By the way, Ichiro is ranked 10th in the survey of last year.

1st place: Ichiro
Second place: Edison
3rd place: Ryoma Sakamoto
4th place: Oda Nobunaga
4th place: Hideyo Noguchi * 4th place equal percentage

Ichiro who got first place.


◆ "Biography of popularity" elementary school girls
For elementary school girls,Lena MariaIs ranked 4th. Lena Maria was a gospel singer from Sweden and was born in 1968. Born in a state where there are no arms and the left leg has only half the length of the right leg, I participated as a swimmer in the Seoul Paralympic Games, then turned to music and performed concerts all over the world.

First place: Helen Keller
Second place: Mother Teresa
3rd place: Nightingale
4th place: Lena Maria
5th place: Anne Frank

Helen Keller who was popular among girls and ranked number one.


◆ "Popular biographies" Elementary school students (mixed men and women) from 1977 to 1979
In the Asahi Shimbun survey, the popularity of 1977 to 1979 is as follows. First place was Hideyo Noguchi.

1st place: Hideyo Noguchi
Second place: Edison
3rd place: Helen Keller
4th place: Babe Ruth
5th place: Nightingale
6th place: Mrs. Curie
7th place: Lincoln
8th: Ieyasu Tokugawa, Hideyoshi Toyotomi
9th place: Beethoven
10th place: Kinjiro Ninomiya

Hideyo Noguchi was one of the most popular biographies from 1977 to 197.


Comparing the results of the 1970s and 2011, Ichiro and Ryoma Sakamoto are ranked third in 2011, Ieyasu Tokugawa and Hideyoshi Toyotomi have passed out and Nobunaga Oda is in the fourth place.

◆ What did you think was good reading the biographies
In the 2011 survey, questions about "what kind of place do you think was good" about the biography you read are also set up. The percentage of responses are as follows.



In this way, the so-called "virtue" such as "honest heart" and "equitable to people" has low evaluation, and evaluation of contribution to humanity and achievement such as "new way of thinking" and "invention / discovery" is also evaluated It seems that it is not so important.

In 2010Asahi Shimbun interview ShueishaIn doing so, Mr. Akio Izawa, who is responsible for the books of Shueisha's children, said that they are seeking purely heroes and heroines rather than being able to press adults with a story of people with excellent personality all the time It seems that the expressed tendency appears as it is. In the article of the Asahi newspaper, "men are heroes, girls are great people", but considering that Lena Maria is ranked in this year's results, it can be said that girls are beginning to show this trend I guess.