Sumo back to 3rd most popular

[Akinomaki 40,800]

In the 24th yearly survey of which professional sports is the most liked among the 1201 Japanese that answered (4000 men and women 20y or older were asked), sumo overtook tennis to finish 3rd, after (unchanged) baseball and soccer. http://www.jiji.com/jc/article?k=2016080400711&g=spo

Data: http://www.crs.or.jp/data/

Edited August 4, 2016 by Akinomaki

[Akinomaki 40,800]

There had been better times - when the survey started in 1993 during the Waka/Taka boom, sumo was no. 1 - in 1996 baseball overtook sumo and then has kept the no.1 position. Sumo in 2002 dropped to 3rd and to 4th in 2005/6, 2011-13 and in 2015 - only in 2010 one time 2nd.
That's how sumo slumped (soccer is the grey 3rd line):

[Gurowake 4,108]

Why does baseball (and sumo) have a name in kanji and the rest just katakana? Ok, Golf and tennis I can understand since those names are meaningless in English, and if they're calling is "Sakka", that sport too (but why not 足玉?). Boxing, eh, maybe. But clearly something better than "Kaareisu" is possible for auto racing, which doesn't have any sort of funny historical name in English but is merely a direct description of the activity. 車速競?

[robnplunder 976]

Why does baseball (and sumo) have a name in kanji and the rest just katakana? Ok, Golf and tennis I can understand since those names are meaningless in English, and if they're calling is "Sakka", that sport too (but why not 足玉?). Boxing, eh, maybe. But clearly something better than "Kaareisu" is possible for auto racing, which doesn't have any sort of funny historical name in English but is merely a direct description of the activity. 車速競?

Good one. I have been learning Japanese for a few months now and I don't get their writing system. It's confusing and I feel sorry for Japanese kids (and foreigners) who have to learn it.

[Kuroyama 715]

Might as well ask why it's "futbol" in Spanish, merely borrowing the English name for the sport and not translating it into "pie-pelota" or something like that.

[Akinomaki 40,800]

Because yakyuu is the (adopted) national sports of Japan (and is hardly ever called baseball).

And when you become Japanese, you have to take on a Japanese name with kanji.

The others have no Japanese names yet - still foreigners, who have not stayed long enough in Japan

And to gamble you have some kei- sports - home-bred variations - together with "-race" sports - guess which is the most popular. Boat-race has a kei- name as well, but keisha 競車 for cars hasn't made it into Japanese - and kei(=light)-jidousha already is something else. Betting on cars is not allowed and especially as a German you tend to confuse it with the one for which it is: auto-race - autobi(ke) is motorcycle in Japanese.

Edited August 5, 2016 by Akinomaki

[Akinomaki 40,800]

This survey also asks for the most popular rikishi, since 2008 it is Hakuho, but the percentage is going down lately. The first number is the popularity rank among all athletes.

Kisenosato went to 2nd place as he became ozeki, dropped with the arrival of Endo and now has a comeback.

2016: 6 - 25.8% - Kise 2. 19.1% - Endo 4. 9.4%
2015: 13 - 27.8% - Kise 3. 10.6% - Endo 2. 16.3%
2014: 17 - 33.1% - Kise 4. 8.7% - Endo 2. 22.3%
2013: 10 - 32.6% - Kise 2. 15%
2012: 5 - 32.7% - Kise 2. 12.6%
2011: 4 - 34.1% - Kise S 5. 3.9%
2010: 10 - 31.2% - Kise S 8. 4%
2009: 13 - 26.7% - Kise S 9. 3.1%
2008: 19 - 25.7% - Kise K 8. 5.6%

Hakuho was ranked in since he made it to sekiwake, Kise since makuuchi. In 2007 Hakuho just had made it to yokozuna at the time of the survey.
2007 Asashoryu - H. Y 4. 10.8% - Kise K 10. 2%
2006 Kotooshu - H. O 7. 7.8% - Kise M 13. 0.7%
2005 Takamisakari - H. S 7. 2.6%
2004 Asashoryu
2003 Asashoryu

[Monnodo 60]

I don't think he invented the word for baseball itself but i know that Masaoka Shiki, a poet of the Meiji era, invented a lot of words for baseball. So maybe Baseball was very beloved by the literature circles of Japan at the time. Also I assume most Japanese people had not much knowledge of the english language, so inventing japanese words makes sense.

And most importantly, using Katakana for foreign words is a concept younger than Baseball as Mainstream Sport but older than soccer as main stream sport.

[Gurowake 4,108]

And most importantly, using Katakana for foreign words is a concept younger than Baseball as Mainstream Sport but older than soccer as main stream sport.

That's rather interesting.

So "pan" from Portuguese was originally written with Kanji, presumably using an ad-hoc reading, for the long time since it was borrowed which had to be hundreds of years ago? Since it is always noted as having been borrowed from Portuguese as opposed to French, from which they would have gotten exactly the same word for that concept, that implies it was borrowed sometime well before any modernization happened in Japan and the Portuguese were their only European contact, as French was a much more widely used international language in the time between contact with the Portuguese and the 20th century.

[Monnodo 60]

And most importantly, using Katakana for foreign words is a concept younger than Baseball as Mainstream Sport but older than soccer as main stream sport.

That's rather interesting.

So "pan" from Portuguese was originally written with Kanji, presumably using an ad-hoc reading, for the long time since it was borrowed which had to be hundreds of years ago? Since it is always noted as having been borrowed from Portuguese as opposed to French, from which they would have gotten exactly the same word for that concept, that implies it was borrowed sometime well before any modernization happened in Japan and the Portuguese were their only European contact, as French was a much more widely used international language in the time between contact with the Portuguese and the 20th century.

Now I am no expert and I am not familiar with the example but people of different eras and people of different standings used different writing systems. So quite possibly. I know for example that nations like England, Germany etc. had Kanji versions of their names before they were "Katakanaed" (Now i know how Kinta feels inventing words. It's awesome!).

One thing I would like to know is why Japan uses Katakana for Mongolia. I can't imaginine them not having a Kanji for them, maybe they even had a different name back in the day for Mongolia? Or were they just "Katakanaed" like other nations?

[robnplunder 976]

One thing I would like to know is why Japan uses Katakana for Mongolia. I can't imaginine them not having a Kanji for them, maybe they even had a different name back in the day for Mongolia? Or were they just "Katakanaed" like other nations?

There are too many examples of this, using one over the other and using both interchangeably. There's no consistency.

Another thing that makes it impossible is that same Kanji can be read 2 - 3 different ways. Kanji for mountain/hill can be read as yama or shan/san. If someone hands me a biz card with their name in Kanji, even if I know their Kanji meaning, I would not know how to pronounce his name.

[hamcornheinz 839]

The chinese name for Mongolia is a transliteration as well.

[Masunofuji 36]

One thing I would like to know is why Japan uses Katakana for Mongolia. I can't imaginine them not having a Kanji for them, maybe they even had a different name back in the day for Mongolia? Or were they just "Katakanaed" like other nations?

There's a beautiful and archaic concept in Japanese called 'ateji' - where kanji are used for phonetic transcription.

For Mongolia, it's 蒙古 (mongoru), 露西亜 (roshia) for Russia and many others. Even 寿司 (sushi) is an ateji.

[Akinomaki 40,800]

The old name from the Mongolian invasion, blown away by the original kamikaze, is Mouko 蒙古 for Mongolia. Moukonami uses different kanji. Too ancient, too much connected to the event - or too different from the present country ?

Most kanji names of countries are still used in prefix- or short forms, especially with 2 languages of a dictionary.

Edited August 6, 2016 by Akinomaki

[hamcornheinz 839]

蒙古 is the chinese transliteration.

[bettega 431]

What are the other 5 sports listed in the graphic (post#2)? The top three are baseball, sumo and football (soccer... pfft), right

[ALAKTORN 346]

What are the other 5 sports listed in the graphic (post#2)? The top three are baseball, sumo and football (soccer... pfft), right

Someone else already mentioned them.

Golf, boxing, car racing (F1 etc.), pro wrestling.

[mikawa 1,794]

One thing I would like to know is why Japan uses Katakana for Mongolia. I can't imaginine them not having a Kanji for them, maybe they even had a different name back in the day for Mongolia? Or were they just "Katakanaed" like other nations?

Another thing that makes it impossible is that same Kanji can be read 2 - 3 different ways. Kanji for mountain/hill can be read as yama or shan/san. If someone hands me a biz card with their name in Kanji, even if I know their Kanji meaning, I would not know how to pronounce his name.

Not to mention sometimes Japanese names can have VERY strange pronunciations

[Koorifuu 1,020]

On 05/08/2016 at 4:47 AM, Kuroyama said:

Might as well ask why it's "futbol" in Spanish, merely borrowing the English name for the sport and not translating it into "pie-pelota" or something like that.

 

It depends. Pelota is a different kind of ball there. There are Spanish football club names that have "Balompie" on it. Balon = ball, pie = foot. It's mostly archaic. (the "n" swapping to a "m" before a "p" is traditional)

However for example, balonciesto and balonmano are still the official words for the respective sports there! Ciesto = basket, mano = hand.

We Portuguese use a version of the original English word on every one of those though.

EDIT

Speaking of the Portuguese influences on Japanese language, it's so clear in the way it's romanized. 70~80% of the romanized stuff pronounces exactly the way we do. Words like "Hiroshi", "Ryu", "Shimano", "Mirai" you could ask the most uncultured of Portuguese and they'll pronounce it in almost clear Japanese. With centuries passing by some adaptations have happened that drifted it a little away, but reading manuscripts of those times on some history channel documentary it used to be almost direct.

Edited August 7, 2016 by Koorifuu