The waning popularity of baseball’s Yomiuri Giants continues. Never having strongly contended for the Central League pennant didn’t help, but this season’s 12.2% average audience rating for night games is the lowest ever since Video Research started analyzing the figures in 1965. That year, the Giants won the Japan Series and the figure was 23.3%. In 1987, when they won the pennant race, it reached 27.1%. This year’s ratings and the team’s failure to advance to the postseason is all the more disappointing for fans as this year the team had spared no expense to put together arguably the most impressive lineup of power ever seen in Japan.
• “The Kano sisters (photo) once got ¥500,000 each just for two hours. All they had to do was talk about the movie in front of the media.” – Movie distribution company spokesperson, on how much some celebrities get paid to turn up at events such as movie premieres and brand-name store opening parties. (Shukan Post magazine)