It means girls voted arashi there #1 favourite artist and people in their 40's ranked ikimonogakari as there favourite artist.

guess i'll be the first one to say this:

CONGRATS ARASHI! :smitten

No that's not why...

Biased because artists that have a very obvious fanbase like Koda Kumi, Perfume, and yes, Ayu too are absent while even aiko making the list, as she does always for some reason. But also artists like GreeeeN who have amazing sales, and Nishino Kana who has the 2nd best selling album of the year aren't mentioned in any. Of course good sales =/= popularity, but hey, if you're not popular you're not going to sell, lol.

This list makes sense to me. It is a pretty accurate indication of favorites in Japan currently. Of course, as with any survey, you MUST NOT interpret this as if this is what all of Japan would vote for if given the chance. It's just given to be a rough estimation.

Personally, I like the 30+ brackets most. Glad to see Miyuki, DCT and Yuming appreciated :)

Oh this is horrible !!
but aiko is there, she is so cute and i love her songs

ikr?

What a boring list, 'random' surveyed people in Japan need to get a clue. :P

And I just noticed, AKB48 only showing up in the 10-19 sect? lol Somehow, I have a very hard time believing that.

Hikki, Namie and Arashi <3 So glad to see them there. :) But it's sad that Kuu didn't make it. Personally I would've loved to see her there too. :D

yay for hikki, namie and aiko :yatta

i dont care bout the rest

well, Ayu didnt make in the list since past 2 or 3 years if I am not wrong. so no big deal and it's not accurate and relevant, only 20,000 surveyed out of 130 million japanese??

yeah for kaela kimura!!!!

I would basically agree. :yes and thanks for posting this list :)

Anyways some fans just tend to be ridiculous. If ayu doesn't make the list and her fans complain it biased but someone like utada does utada fans will go on how relevant hikki is and ayu, and kuu just aren't it anymore. Like these lists show some goddam relevance :rolleyes
And then when utada doesn't make the list but ayu does its also just biased (cuz hikki just should be on there) and ayu fans use it as some excuse to show why ayu is better, more popular etc
And one can say the same with kuu, namie, etc...
These polls are not some final great judgement
Obviously one can note from how different they always are. And how certain artists get on them.

Sorry, some fans are frustrating with their logic. Its gonna take a lot more to make me understand it

Actually this list is a really accurate depiction of what is actually popular in Japan right now. And yes, AKB is actually popular among elementary and junior high school students.

alot of ppl in Japan don't like ayu duh (not talking about the list)

HIKKI WOOT!!!!!!!

^ Of course. Anyone who is popular has a fair share of haters too.

But if I'm not wrong, those Oricon Rankings usually survey +- the same people or something like that, doesn't it?

All those magazine/site rankings usually survey the same people (being it cuz they asked those people, or cuz they appeal to this or that group), so, no wonder most of the time the same magazines/sites lists the same artists/bands....

Going over some of the comments here, I guess people really need some form of confirmation from people other than themselves to feel that their opinion has any relevance even to themselves. Usually, the mindless, over-zealous fans.

I'm more interested in the way the survey was conducted. It's obviously biased (for one, it's skewed toward a certain age group and most likely Oricon subscribers) seeing as aiko makes yet another appearance (not to say that her music is bad or anything but placing her ahead of Masaharu Fukuyama in the popularity department?).

I have to disagree with Sunshine Slayer regarding the overall results: this isn't the music scene in Japan. It's what a certain fanbase wants to believe the music scene is like. Seeing that most of the population in Japan is much older, I believe that the teens and twenty year olds are over-represented.

Ayu or Koda Kumi shouldn't be on this list, but neither should several who are actually on it. But at least Arashi is on top and that's accurate. Everything else is contestable.

Personally, I like that Hikki appears on this list. It means that I can say, with some crude evidence, that Hikki will always be overrated and overvalued :P

^ No offense, but you seem to be contradicting yourself a lot there.

wtf is this!? where is ayu?? O_O

I'm not going based off of a survey to tell me whats popular, but what I observe in my day to day life living here.

bleh arashi.

Quite happy to see ikimonogakari up there! I think they're the only ones on the list I like ATM.