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The story
Loyalty Marketing Co., which runs the common point service “Ponta,” has released the results of its “Face of 2026” survey, conducted in October 2026 among 1,500 Ponta Research members (men and women aged 20-69). Figure skating pair Riku-Ryu came in 4th and idol group M!LK came in 2nd, but the article never actually names who took 1st — and that set off a clash in the thread between people backing Shohei Ohtani and others objecting that “he had an off year.” Some commenters brought up Sanae Takaichi and Yuzuru Hanyu instead, underscoring just how differently people define who counts as the “face of the year.”
Published Thu, 11/12, 18:05
Loyalty Marketing Co., which operates the common point service “Ponta,” announced on Thursday, November 12, 2026, the results of a survey looking back on the trends of 2026. The survey asked about the year’s mood and the people and works that made headlines, and also released a Top 10 “Face of the Year” list naming the people seen as having drawn the most attention in 2026.
The survey was conducted online in October 2026 among “Ponta Research” members. Valid responses were collected from 1,500 people total — men and women aged 20-69 living in Japan, with 150 respondents per gender/age bracket (according to “Ponta Research”).
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Ohtani wasn't all that this year. Seto Kanna would've been the better pick.
TV Tokyo's Nakane (the announcer).
Exactly. Ohtani hasn't done much this year.
The trash media (a slur blending "mass media" and "trash") never gets tired of it.
Left out in the cold (lol).
No matter the era, they're the nation's punching bag.
There wasn't a single day I didn't see them somewhere.
Seriously, don't bother clicking through.
Tadokoro Koji would make more sense.
Go ahead, name Ohtani's stats this year.
Still, landing that one big moment was probably good enough.
And not in a good way.
[2024 TV News Coverage Volume Ranking]
1st: 738 hrs 38 min 54 sec — Ohtani-related coverage
2nd: 332 hrs 52 min 20 sec — LDP political funds scandal, factional disputes
3rd: 271 hrs 28 min 30 sec — Noto Peninsula earthquake
4th: 254 hrs 09 min 06 sec — US presidential election
5th: 200 hrs 32 min 06 sec — Paris Olympics/Paralympics
https://imgur.com/CyC3u1O
This thread's been made over and over, y'know.
Anyone who voted for Ohtani must have brain damage.
Posting the "Kazu Dance" (soccer legend Kazuyoshi Miura's signature goal celebration) on Instagram or something?
Soccer only becomes a topic once every four years for the World Cup — kind of like Higurashi from "Kochikame" (a minor character from the long-running manga who pops up once in a blue moon), lol.
If we're talking soccer, the name I heard the most this year was Zion.
"Hanyu is Japanese, yet his legs are long and his style is beautiful like a white person's."
French newspaper:
"You may not believe it, but this young man with an 8-heads-tall physique is Japanese."
Turkish announcer:
"Hanyu is extraordinarily beautiful, overturning the common belief that 'Japanese athletes are plain-looking.'"
The best-seller this year was EBiDAN's "YES! Tokyo."
M!LK: 500K (albums 1M)
Genjibu: 750K
Rienel: 250K
iiondo: 200K
It's completely EBiDAN's era now.
He's had zero buzz for the past several years.
No more WBC.
Even his personal life (the sports-gambling scandal rumors, the dog, the marriage) stopped being newsworthy.
Plus his own slump.
He had buzz in the first half, though — he was winning plenty as a pitcher too.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
The “Face of the Year” survey is conducted annually among Ponta Research members; this round collected responses in October 2026 from 1,500 men and women aged 20-69 (150 per gender/age bracket). Since neither the original article nor the thread title explicitly names who took 1st place, the thread’s discussion essentially became everyone trading their own guesses and objections about “who actually deserves 1st this year.” The biggest split was over Shohei Ohtani: some backed him purely on the sheer volume of coverage he generates, while others pushed back, citing his off year and the fading buzz around his personal life. There was also skepticism toward the ranking itself — comments on M!LK’s rising sales, declining regard for Johnny’s-affiliated acts, and the view that figure skating pair Riku-Ryu were a “one-hit wonder.” One thing readers can easily get wrong: the headline’s “1st place” is never actually confirmed in the article text, so the thread’s reactions are all speculation and counterarguments built on the assumption that “Ohtani was 1st.”
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “‘Face of 2026’ Ranking! 4th: Riku-Ryu, 2nd: M!LK… Who Did 1,500 People Pick for 1st?“
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