For AKB48 fans, almost everybody knows who’s in the top 16, regardless of who your favorite is. However, to non-fans, how popular are the most highly ranked AKB members?
A survey conducted by Sirabee compares members rankings and how well known they are to the general public. The survey was conducted on a site called Mind Sonar, and had a sample size of 416 people, peoples ages from their teens to their 50s, including both men and women. The survey was conducted between June 17,2015 and June 20,2015.
It seems they asked the question, “Do you know this person?”. The results are here! All graphs provided courtesy of sirabee.com.
This first graph focuses two member slated as “aces” for the next generation: Miyawaki Sakura, who first broke into the Kami 7 this year, and Shimazaki Haruka. Even from here, it seems that rank doesn’t correlate to being well-known.
It’s no doubt that the top three would have some of the absolute highest ratings. Beyond their usual idol activities, Sashihara, Kashiwagi and Mayu appear in plenty of dramas, music, and TV shows.
And about members who did not even run for the election? Here we see Kojima Haruna and Matsui Rena respectively. With regards to Kojima Haruna, this doesn’t seem too surprising, as she currently is currently amongst the top 10 most followed Twitter users in Japan.
It gets much more interesting when you compare the the popularity of the most recent unranked members. It appears even unranked members Shimada Haruka (22.5%) and Oya Shizuka (27.0%) are even more well known than even the lower placed senbatsu members!
As you see, Matsumura Kaori comes in at 11.2%, while Takayanagi Akane and Shibata Aya get 9.6% and 10.3% respectively.
Author: reika
I’m writing about useless and stupid things a lot, and I like to laugh. My policy is 一期一会。It means treasure your meeting with everyone!