What the Top 50 Most-Viewed Pages Reveal About the Multilingual Reach of The Turntable of Civilization—A Record of 43 Foreign-Language Editions
The Top 50 most-viewed pages for this day produced a highly distinctive result, showing that The Turntable of Civilization was read not only in Japanese but also in numerous foreign languages.
In first place was the English edition of “I Tell You My Sincere Gratitude Here. I Will Never Forget the Great Kindness You Gave Me.”
In second place was an English-language article about a movie I watched on Saturday by cutting into my sleeping hours, while third place went to the Japanese article, “I Think I Am Probably One of the People in Japan Who Have Watched Tora-san Most Often.”
Articles expressing gratitude and discussing movies and Japanese culture ranked highly alongside those dealing with politics and international affairs, demonstrating the exceptionally broad range of readers’ interests.
From fourth place downward, numerous foreign-language editions appeared on such subjects as comfort women reporting, the Asahi Shimbun, China and South Korea, anti-Japanese propaganda, and the importance of loving the planet as earthlings.
Articles in English, German, Portuguese, Korean, French, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Spanish, and Thai appeared in the Top 50.
Of the 49 entries other than the top page, 43 were foreign-language editions.
Because articles addressing the same subjects ranked simultaneously in several languages, it is evident that the arguments presented by The Turntable of Civilization were read not only in Japanese but also through their various foreign-language editions.
In ninth place was the Japanese article beginning, “As many senior government officials reportedly said, ‘The Asahi Shimbun has gone mad’ and ‘It is virtually in a state of insanity.’”
In fortieth place was the English-language article about the monthly magazine HANADA and the Asahi Shimbun, titled “It Is a Magazine That Not Only Japanese Citizens but Also People All Over the World Should Subscribe To.”
Another major feature of this day’s ranking was that the series of articles criticizing the Asahi Shimbun’s reporting stance appeared in the Top 50 in both Japanese and foreign-language editions.
It is also noteworthy that the top page ranked only forty-first, while numerous individual articles placed above it.
This suggests that readers were not merely searching for articles through the top page, but were also highly likely to have reached individual articles directly through search results, external links, and other routes.
Personal writings and articles about movies, Japanese culture, politics, history, media issues, and international affairs were being read simultaneously in Japanese and in numerous foreign languages.
The Top 50 most-viewed pages for this day provide a clear record of the breadth of subjects covered by The Turntable of Civilization at that time and the strong presence of its foreign-language editions.
2017-7-31