Welcome to the the 11th iinstallment of Polling Japanese Students, the series of posts in which I post the results of surveys I gave to Japanese junior high school students. As you may know, the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan recently released statistics that revealed that aggregate revenue from Japanese films surpassed foreign films for the first time since 1985. Let’s see how the kids stand in the battle between domestic and foreign films:

I really wasn’t suprised with the results. Boys tend to enjoy blockbuster action, science fiction and adventure films, a genre hollywood is quite good at producting. More girls picked Japanese films, probably because they’re more drawn to lower budget genres such as drama, romance and comedy, which domestic filmmakers are better-equipped to produce. That’s not to say that Japan’s film industry can’t make successful special effects-filled movies [Death Note, Japan Sinks, and Umizaru 2 were quite successful], but big budget hollywood blockbusters are still a major box-office draw in Japan.

I followed up the question by asking students what their favorite film was, but as is often the case with Japanese students, many were too shy to give an answer without being provided with choices to pick. Here are the films they mentioned [the top 3 movies on each list had two votes, the rest had one vote]:
Boys

• Harry Potter
• Death Note
• Pirates of the Caribbean 2
• Last Samurai
• Umizaru 2
• Star Wars
• Bushi no Ichibun
• Dororo
• Trick 2
• Star Wars

Girls:

• Harry Potter
• Ohoku
• Kisarazu Cat’s Eye
• Davinci Code
• Death Note
• Lovely Complex
• Japan Sinks
• Omen
• Tada Kimi Ai Shiteru
• Brave Story
• Taiyou no Uta

Quite a varied list, but at least both sexes can agree upon Harry Potter…

As always, I am looking for new questions to ask the kids and I am open to your suggestions. Please post some in the comments!

Previous editions:

• Polling Japanese Students #10: Do you believe in ghosts? What about UFO’s? Have you seen one?
• Polling Japanese Students #9: Do you have a computer? Mac or PC? Do you use the internet?
• Polling Japanese Students #8: New Year’s Money (otoshidama)
• Polling Japanese Students #7: Famous historical figures….Do you know them?
• Polling Japanese Students #6: Is your mother a housewife?
• Polling Japanese Students #5: Smokers in the family
• Polling Japanese Students #4: What foreign country would you like to visit?
• Polling Japanese Students #3: PlayStation 3 vs. Nintendo Wii
• Polling Japanese Students #2: What’s your favorite country in Asia (aside from Japan)?
• Polling Japanese Students #1: PSP or DS? China or South Korea?