The Top 100 Historical Persons in Japan


The Top 100 Historical Persons, aired on Nippon Television on May 7, 2006. The program featured the results of a survey that asked Japanese people to choose their favorite great person from history. The show featured several re-enactments of scenes from the lives of the people on the list.
The survey asked Japanese people to name their most-liked historical figures, not the most influential. The selection was not restricted to Japanese people, and only about two thirds of the names are Japanese, mostly important Japanese historical figures, such as samurai, prime ministers, war leaders, authors, poets. and popular Meiji Restoration figures.
The program was followed up with a women-only Top-100 list which aired September 23, 2006, and History's 100 Most Influential People: Hero Edition which aired in March 2007.

List

The final list was as follows:
  1. Oda Nobunaga daimyō in the 16th century
  2. Sakamoto Ryōma The samurai who overthrew the Tokugawa shogunate in bakumatsu Japan.
  3. Thomas Edison America's greatest inventor
  4. Toyotomi Hideyoshi politician, samurai who is regarded as Japan's second "great unifier"
  5. Matsushita Kōnosuke industrialist, founder of Panasonic
  6. Tokugawa Ieyasu The founder and first shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate
  7. Noguchi Hideyo bacteriologist who in 1911 discovered the agent of syphilis as the cause of progressive paralytic disease.
  8. Mother Teresa Roman Catholic nun and missionary
  9. Helen Keller author and lecturer who was a deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree
  10. Hijikata Toshizō Fukucho of Shinsengumi, a great swordsman and a talented military leader who resisted the Meiji Restoration
  11. Saigō Takamori One of the three great nobles who led the Meiji Restoration.
  12. Princess Diana Member of British royal family, philanthropist and known for her charity work
  13. Albert Einstein physicist, known for theory of relativity
  14. Misora Hibari singer and actress
  15. Fukuzawa Yukichi Japanese author, writer, teacher, translator, entrepreneur and journalist who founded Keio University
  16. Anne Frank diarist, known for "Het Achterhuis"
  17. Florence Nightingale English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing.
  18. Yoshida Shigeru Prime Minister of Japan
  19. Walt Disney Entrepreneur, animator, voice actor and film producer.
  20. Ludwig van Beethoven German composer and pianist
  21. Minamoto Yoshitsune Military commander of the Minamoto clan of Japan in the late Heian and early Kamakura periods
  22. Ayrton Senna One of the greatest formula drivers of all time
  23. Leonardo da Vinci polymath, universal genius
  24. Tezuka Osamu Manga artist who created Astro Boy, cartoonist, animator, film producer, medical doctor
  25. Napoleon Bonaparte Emperor of French
  26. Prince Shōtoku Semi-legendary regent and a politician of the Asuka period in Japan who served under Empress Suiko.
  27. John Lennon Member of The Beatles
  28. Zhuge Liang Imperial Chancellor and regent of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period
  29. Miyamoto Musashi Japanese swordsman, philosopher, writer and rōnin.
  30. Ozaki Yutaka Musician
  31. Audrey Hepburn British actress during Hollywood's Golden Age, dancer and humanitarian.
  32. Mahatma Gandhi activist, that led to Indian independence movement against British rule.
  33. Soseki Natsume novelist
  34. Takasugi Shinsaku Samurai from the Chōshū Domain of Japan who contributed significantly to the Meiji Restoration.
  35. Murasaki Shikibu novelist and poet
  36. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Austria's greatest composer
  37. Yamamoto Isoroku Marshal Admiral of the Navy and the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II
  38. Miyazawa Kenji author for children's literature
  39. John F. Kennedy 35th President of United States
  40. Ninomiya Sontoku Agricultural leader, philosopher, moralist and economist
  41. Kondō Isami Japanese swordsman and official of the late Edo period
  42. Ōkubo Toshimichi Main founders of Modern Japan.
  43. Takeda Shingen pre-eminent daimyō in feudal Japan
  44. Himiko was a shaman queen of Yamataikoku in Wa
  45. Inō Tadataka surveyor and cartographer, completed the first map of Modern Japan.
  46. Ishihara Yujiro actor and singer
  47. Sen no Rikyū Prominent figure who had influence on chanoyu, the Japanese "Way of Tea", particularly the tradition of wabi-cha
  48. Charlie Chaplin actor of Silent Era
  49. Sugihara Chiune Government official who served as vice consul for the Japanese Empire in Lithuania
  50. Date Masamune Regional ruler of Japan's Azuchi–Momoyama period through early Edo period
  51. Tanaka Giichi Prime Minister of Japan
  52. Bruce Lee Hong Kong actor and the greatest martial artist of all time
  53. Okita Sōji The captain of the first unit of the Shinsengumi, a special police force in Kyoto during the late shogunate period
  54. Matsuda Yusaku One of Japan's most important actors
  55. Marie Antoinette The last Queen of France before the French Revolution
  56. Ōishi Kuranosuke of the Akō Domain in Harima Province
  57. Ikariya Chosuke comedian and film actor
  58. Wright Brothers
  59. Katsu Kaishū statesman and naval engineer during the late Tokugawa shogunate and early Meiji period
  60. Martin Luther King Jr. civil rights activist for black people
  61. Yoshida Shōin distinguished intellectual in the closing days of the Tokugawa shogunate
  62. Kurosawa Akira Japan's greatest director
  63. Uesugi Kenshin daimyō
  64. Marie Curie physicist and chemist, First woman to win a Nobel Prize
  65. Satō Eisaku Prime Minister of Japan
  66. Sanada Yukimura Samurai warrior of the Sengoku period
  67. Cao Cao Chinese warlord and the penultimate Chancellor of the Eastern Han dynasty
  68. Kato Daijiro Grand Prix motorcycle road racer,
  69. Cleopatra the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt
  70. Tokugawa Mitsukuni Prominent daimyō who was known for his influence in the politics of the early Edo period
  71. Elvis Presley King of Rock and Roll
  72. Ogi Akira professional Japanese baseball player, coach and manager
  73. Tōgō Heihachirō Gensui or admiral of the fleet in the Imperial Japanese Navy and one of Japan's greatest naval heroes
  74. Christopher Columbus Italian explorer, navigator, and colonizer that discovered America
  75. Itō Hirobumi statesman and genrō
  76. Pablo Picasso 20th century best painter
  77. Marco Polo Italian explorer
  78. Albert Schweitzer French-German theologian, organist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician.
  79. Yosano Akiko author and social activist
  80. Andy Hug Swiss karateka and one of the best kickboxers
  81. Tsuburaya Eiji special effects director, co-creator of Godzilla
  82. Joan of Arc Roman Catholic saint
  83. Honda Minako pop star
  84. Uemura Naomi adventurer
  85. Sugita Genpaku scholar known for his translation of Kaitai Shinsho
  86. Confucius ancient philosopher
  87. Jean-Henri Casimir Fabre French naturalist, entomologist
  88. Natsume Masako actress
  89. Ferdinand Magellan Portuguese explorer who organised the Spanish expedition to the East Indies from 1519 to 1522
  90. Honda Soichiro engineer, founder of Honda
  91. Anne Sullivan teacher, lifelong companion of Helen Keller
  92. Shohei "Giant" Baba professional wrestler, co-founder of All Japan Pro Wrestling
  93. Abraham Lincoln 16th President of United States
  94. Dazai Osamu author
  95. Frédéric Chopin Polish composer
  96. Ikkyū iconoclastic Japanese Zen Buddhist monk and poet.
  97. Akechi Mitsuhide samurai and general who lived during the Sengoku period of Feudal Japan
  98. Isaac Newton physicist and theologian, known for implementing the law of gravity
  99. Matsuo Bashō most known poet during Edo period
  100. Arthur Conan Doyle writer, known for creating the character Sherlock Holmes