Toward the end of every year, Japan's print media and many business organizations look back on "hit products" whose successes helped define consumer spending over the previous 12 months.
The term hitto shōhin (hit products) is credited to the 日経流通新聞 (Nikkei Ryutsu Shimbun, Nikkei Marketing Journal), a thrice-weekly newspaper covering retailing and marketing that was launched in 1971. Seeking to generate publicity for their nascent publication, the Nikkei decided to emulate a 相撲番付 (sumo banzuke), a stylized list of wrestler rankings issued just before the start of each grand sumo tournament. As in sumo, the winning products were arrayed in a hierarchy with 横綱 (yokozuna, grand champion) in large characters at the top, with the East side, which predominates, contending against the West side. The two yokozuna are followed in descending order by pairs of 大関 (ōzeki, champions), 関脇 (sekiwake, junior champions), 小結 (komusubi, 4th-ranked wrestlers) and about a dozen 前頭 (maegashira, rank-and-file contenders).
During the 経済成長期 (keizai seichō-ki, period of economic growth) from the late 1950s, Japan's consumers would snatch up almost anything. But by the early 1970s, markets for many goods became saturated and consumers began getting picky. So inclusion on the Nikkei's hit list, in addition to earning publicity, acknowledges a company's ability to identify and exploit shifts in market demand.