As well as the traditional Japanese custom of sending Nengajou, or ‘New Year’s Postcards’, it seems that Japanese netizens are increasingly posting their new year greetings on Twitter, tweeting a shortened version of the traditional ‘akemashite omedetou gozaimasu’ — or ‘ake ome’.
So much so, in fact, that in the first second of 2013, Japanese Twitter users took the world record for the highest number of tweets in one second. And as many netizens mention in their comments, this was not the first time Japan had held the record for the most tweets, since Japan was also the previous record holder with the word ‘bals’. ‘Bals’ was the word used at the end of the Ghibli animated film Laputa: Castle in the Sky, which when repeated brings about the destruction of the flying city of Laputa, saving the protagonists.
FromYahoo! Japan:
World Record For Number of Tweets Topped By Japan ‘Happy New Year’ Tweets — Overtakes ‘Bals’
On January 2, Twitter announced that the record for the number of tweets per second was broken by Japan.
As the clock struck midnight in various locations around the world, the number of tweets in one second in ‘Japan, Seoul’ were the most at 33,388 tweets, while ‘New York, Bogota’ had 13,336, ‘Bangkok, Jakarta’ had 11,675, and ‘Los Angeles, Vancouver’ had 7,137 tweets.
Up to now, the highest record for the number of tweets was during a broadcast of the Studio Ghibli film ‘Laputa: Castle in the Sky‘ which was shown on the Nippon Television Network Corporation ‘Friday Roadhow’ [the weekly Friday night film] on December 9, 2011, and the number of tweets throughout the world in one second was 25,088.
Comments from Yahoo! Japan:
あるてーぬ（fx9…）さん:
Japanese are so stupid. In a good way.
耐熱ガラス（moo…）さん:
Wonder what would happen if they played Laputa on New Year’s Eve w
zerosakisousiki03070905（zer…）さん:
As a fan of Laputa I’m a bit frustrated about this.
don*d*keids*y*usar*te*unnd*yo（don…）さん:
A great distraction for idiots.
雅ひっそり庵（mas…）さん:
A world record is a good thing!I hope there are many happy events to come in the new year!※ I’m late with e-mails every year, so I reckon most people used it just to send their greetings first and foremost.
ﾘｳﾞｧｰ・ｳｨﾝｸﾞ商會（per…）さん:
‘The number of tweets in the following one second were the most in ‘Japan, Seoul’ with 33,388 tweets’ — Don’t put Japan and Korea together! (grrr)
( ﾟ Дﾟ ）（x28…）さん:
‘Ake ome'[a contraction of ‘akemashite omedetou gozaimasu’ or ‘Happy New Year’]…I’m disgusted by this corrupt use of the Japanese language. You can’t just abbreviate anything you feel like. And it was originally a graceful and beautiful greeting that was befitting of the beginning of the year…
xza*sd（xza…）さん:
。So basically there are loads of idiots. I’m looking forward to seeing how many more idiots we can discover this year.
fcw*n7*7（fcw…）さん:
Idiots who tweeted about it, idiots who made it into an article, idiots who read that article, idiots that comment on the article…myself included. This year too, Japan will be peaceful.
あるふぁツー（ven…）さん:
Pff, a while ago there was an article about the most read page on Wikipedia. Japan, are you really OK? I’m worried.
ｑ（p31…）さん:
Twitter is pretty low level stuff. It’s full of users who boast about drink driving, not paying for train tickets, underage smoking.
今計算してみたが（fnf…）さん:
My name is Romska Ake Ome Laputa. [A pun on the name of the evil character in Laputa, who is called ‘Romska Palo Ur Laputa’].
ポチ（cpn…）さん:
I’m so fed up with your stupidity.
kanemusi123（kan…）さん:
I didn’t send any ‘ake-ome’ e-mails or use Twitter or anything, so I didn’t get anything either. Still, I’m free.
yam*****（yam…）さん:
This is just an interim record until the next Laputa record.
fdh*gd（fdh…）さん:
Pointless.
rickie090909（ric…）さん:
I guess the number of Japanese people who only have online friends whose faces they have never even seen is on the rise…For real friends, going to meet them or sending them a hand-written letter conveys things better.
春夏秋冬（ale…）さん:
I guess they have no friends or people they’re close to?
Comments from Twitter:
カリー王子:
Just how much are Japanese people using Twitter…?
にしLLAP (￣-￣)ﾆﾔｯ:
The fact that up to now the title holder was ‘bals’ is also amazing in a way.
さとし:
Everyone doing the same thing…so Japanese.
エル:
To everyone in the world: Sorry for overloading the server.
まっく:
Sorry I couldn’t take part.
弁護士あだちけいた:
Wonder what would happen if they played Laputa on New Year’s Eve…(笑)
たくろうちゃん（逆賊）:
It’d be pretty tough if they played Laputa on New Year’s Eve
cladegifan:
‘Up to now, the highest record for the number of tweets was during a broadcast of the Studio Ghibli film ‘Laputa: Castle in the Sky‘ which was shown on the Nippon Television Network Corporation ‘Friday Roadhow’ broadcast on December 9, 2011′ — I didn’t know that! Japanese people like Twitter. Happy New Year, everyone.
てつひろ:
We have no time-different with Korea. I mean, really!?Σ（ﾟдﾟlll）
depon2010:
The previous record was also held in Japan （笑）
ちゅうジン太郎:
I was wondering what ‘bals’ was…w I mean, at that time everyone was saying ‘bals’ weren’t they…www
名古屋是清:
Right then, so next year it’s definitely going to be ‘Ake ome bals’.
BeStrong:
It topped ‘bals’ (笑)
『#28』を幼少期から見守る『竜党』:
I see, so somewhere in those 33,888 tweets was my 4,000th tweet (笑)
I
