Japanese people like ranking things. The most recent example: ranking AKB48 members by who drew the most attention – the results of which don’t match up with election rankings. Surprise!

This ranking comes via an article which appears on Gunosy Online, which itself appeared to use data from a company called WazaMono Shirabe. What’s the basis of their analysis?

Page view accesses of official member profiles on the AKB website.

Hmm… I suppose that is one way that you can gauge the “attention” of the general public to a particular member. On thing to note is that they do no disclose numbers, only a relative ranking.

The ranking is broken up by two time periods: February to April 2016, and May to July 2016 – it looks like the rank changes depending on the time. Anyhow, here is the ranking results:

For February to April 2016:

• 第1位 Ma Chia-Ling (馬嘉怜)
• 第2位 Iriyama Anna (入山杏奈)
• 第3位 Shimazaki Haruka (島崎遙香)
• 第4位 Watanabe Mayu (渡辺麻友)
• 第5位 Miyawaki Sakura (宮脇咲良)
• 第6位 Kojima Haruna (小嶋陽菜)
• 第7位 Owada Nana (大和田南那)
• 第8位 Yokoyama Yui (横山由依)
• 第9位 Oda Erina (小田えりな)
• 第10位 Kato Rena (加藤玲奈)
• 第11位 Mukaichi Mion (向井地美音)
• 第12位 Okada Nana (岡田奈々)
• 第13位 Kashiwagi Yuki (柏木由紀)
• 第14位 Kizaki Yuria (木崎ゆりあ)
• 第15位 Minegishi Minami (峯岸みなみ)

Surprised? I was too. Ma Chia-Ling is the AKB48 member from Taiwan. The Gunosy article suggests that her promotion to a full-fledged member during a handshake event in February is responsible for her first place position.

The ranking from May to July 2016 is a slightly different story:

• 第1位 Iriyama Anna (入山杏奈)
• 第2位 Owada Nana (大和田南那)
• 第3位 Miyawaki Sakura (宮脇咲良)
• 第4位 Mukaichi Mion (向井地美音)
• 第5位 Shimazaki Haruka (島崎遙香)
• 第6位 Kojima Haruna (小嶋陽菜)
• 第7位 Yokoyama Yui (横山由依)
• 第8位 Watanabe Mayu (渡辺麻友)
• 第9位 Okada Nana (岡田奈々)
• 第10位 Kato Rena (加藤玲奈)
• 第11位 Oshima Ryoka (大島涼花)
• 第12位 Muto Tomu (武藤十夢)
• 第13位 Ma Chia-Ling (馬嘉怜)
• 第14位 Kojima Mako (小嶋真子)
• 第15位 Iwatate Saho (岩立沙穂)

The original article mentions a few reasons for Iriyama Anna and Owada Nana’s top positions, but none of them sound particularly insightful:

• Iriyama Anna’s appearance in non-AKB functions such as variety shows (Sanma Goten for instance, was a big one), and various TV drama appearances
• The reasons for Owada Nana’s placement is a little mysterious. She ranked 62 in the last election, but also mentions her “ijirare character” (a character who is always picked on) as being useful in variety show appearances.

As always, take this all with a grain of salt. What do you think of this ranking?

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Source: https://gunosy.com/articles/RimLS