The Nikkei Hit Ranking 1996

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun selects the best hit products and rank them as the sumo rating list every year. The '96 ranking was reported on December 26.

Yokozuna - Grand Champions

• Ultra cheap Cellar Phone and PHS
  At the end of November, there were 22 million subsrribers for both combined, thanks to as cheap as just 1 yen handy phone.
• Canal City Hakata
  One of the largest malls in Japan, opened in April, gathered more than 10 million customers.

Ozeki - Champions

• Nike
  Famous Air Max shoes became so popular that it often sold 10 times as expensive as the list price in the grey market.
• Foreign Bonds, Foreign Deposit
  The balance of foreign deposit and amount of foreign bonds by individuals recorded more than 10 trillion yen.

Sekiwake - Second Champions

• PerfecTV
  The first commercial digital satellite service started in October and gained almost 100 thousands subscribers by the end of the year.
• Namie Amuro
  The balance of foreign deposit and amount of foreign bonds by individuals recorded more than 10 trillion yen.

Komusubi - Third Champions

• Odaiba
  New popular district in Tokyo bay area gathered more guests than Tokyo Disney Lnad
• IXY
  Canon's new camera with APS, or Advanced Photo Systems, sold more than 660 thausands (Apr - Oct) and gaind a half of market share.

Maegashira - major players

• Print Club
  The machine to gererate personal seals with your picture attracted young girls
• New houses and apartments
  Super low interest rate and expected raise of sales tax accerelated the construction.
• Hong Kong Tour
  More than 2 million tourist rushed to the island before the reversion from UK to China.
• Highly Priced Prize
  The upper limit of the prize relaxed to 10 million yen from April and rich prize attracted many people
• Takashimaya Times Square
  The new department store onpend in Shinjuku on October 4. The first day recorded 250 thousands customers and 10 million visited by the end of the year.
• Asahi Kuronama (Black Beer)
  Cultivated new market for beer. Other brewers followed with black beer or half & half beer brands.
• 80 yen humberger
  Cereblating its 25 anniversary, Japan McDonald's introduced the price as of its establishment. Alomst 700 million pieces sold a year.
• Libretto 20
  Toshiba's sub-note computer, the smallest and lightest Windows 95 machine in the world, was a shock.
• Retro subcompact car
  The old style round edge design attracted young generations. Fuji Heavy Industry's "Bistro" lead the market.
• Call-back service for international call
  AT & T entered this niche market and forced KDD and other phone companies to cut their prices.
• Common department stores coupon
  280 billion yen sales a year and have a half of the gift coupon for the department stores.
• Biolet fresh pack for nose
  Kao's handy pack to clean up your nose skin sold mor than 10 million pieces in a half year (difficult to translate...)
• Zero
  Lotte's low calorie chocolate boosted the slack market and earned more than 3 billion yen since September.
• Internet Television Sets
  Many consumer electronic companies launched new products taking the asvantage of the internet boom.
• Medical soap - Muse
  P & G's product sold so well because of O-157 e-coli.
• No-nai Kakumei
  The book No-nai Kakumei, or The Revolution Inside Your Brain, persuaded very simple method to vitalize the brain and became the best selling book in Heisei era with 3.5 million copies.
• Organic Food
  That is food produced without artificial fertilizer or chemicals. Still only 1% of total agricultural pruducts, it is expected to grow as much as 10 times larger market.
• Common prepaid card for railways
  Surutto KANSAI for Osaka and Kyoto region's railways sold 6.4 million cards in a half year, and SF card for Tokyo subways did 4 million.
• Beedaman
  Bee-dama is a traditional small bullet for kids to play. With this Takara's product, they can shoot the bee-dama.
• Tablet type mint candy
  Small case with these mint candy became must-haves for relaxing and erasing foul breath
• Shall We Dansu ?
  The movie featuring the social dance gained 2 million audiences. Many middle aged start learing social dance.
• Mini-Tetris
  Small game machine with a key holder sold more than 2.2 million units since September
• Northern Kanto Price
  Three aggressive discount store groups, based in nothern Kanto area, determined the prices of consumer electronic goods
• New Century Evangelion
  The TV animation on-aired until last spring. Video cassetes and LDs sold 2 million copies. Comic books did 3 million.