Looking at the hottest Google keywords for the year can give you a good insight into a country. For example, in the motherland, some of the top keywords were “Game of Thrones,” “How to wear a scarf,” and “Ebola symptoms.” God bless America.
Of course, the next thing to do would be turn an eye to my country of residence: Japan.
So what did Japan search for on Google in 2014? Let’s take a look!
Google Hot Trends, Japan, 2014
- World Cup (ワールドカップ)
- Yokai Watch (妖怪ウォッチ)
- Sochi Olympics (ソチオリンピック)
- Typhoon (台風)
- Frozen (アナ雪)
- Kei Nishikori (錦織圭)
- Yuzuru Hanyu (羽生結弦)
- Dengue Fever (デング熱)
- Ken Takakura (高倉健)
- Mt. Ontake (御嶽山)
The Google Japan 2014 trending list brings back a lot of memories. My coworker talking about their kid loving the anime Yokai Watch; Joking with friends that we were going to get dengue fever every time one of us got bitten by a mosquito; Seeing the look of surprise on friends’ faces when they found out that “Ana to Yuki no Joou (Ana and the Ice Queen)” is called “Frozen” in the US; and watching in horror on TV as footage of the erupting Mt. Ontake was shown again and again.
Of course, this wasn’t the only trending category. Let’s take a look at another.
Google Trending Characters, Japan, 2014
- Doraemon (robot cat character from the long-running hit anime of the same name)
- Jibanyan (ghost cat character from the new anime, Yokai Watch)
- Funasshi (the very unofficial mascot of Funabashi City, Chiba Prefecture)
- Pikachu (the most famous character from Pokemon)
- Kumamon (the official mascot of Kumamoto Prefecture)
Google Trending Ramen, Japan, 2014
- ramen burger
- ramen festival
- rapid ramen
- paris ramen week
- ramen flavored oreos
I’m actually not sure what the the ramen list was about; the Japanese Google trends page is a little sparse compared to some other countries. With that, I’ll leave you with ramen flavored oreos (are these a real thing?).
