The Top 100 Historical Persons in Japan

The Top 100 Historical Persons (超大型歴史アカデミー史上初1億3000万人が選ぶニッポン人が好きな偉人ベスト100発表^[1] in Japanese), 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.^[2]

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.^[3]

The program was followed up with a women-only Top-100 list (ニッポン人が好きな１００人の美人) which aired September 23, 2006,^[4] and History's 100 Most Influential People: Hero Edition which aired in March 2007.^[5]

List

The final list was as follows:^[6]

Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582) daimyō in the 16th century
Sakamoto Ryōma (1836–1867) The samurai who overthrew the Tokugawa shogunate in bakumatsu Japan.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537–1598) politician, samurai who is regarded as Japan's second "great unifier"

Matsushita Kōnosuke (1894–1989) industrialist, founder of Panasonic
Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616) The founder and first shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate
Noguchi Hideyo (1876–1928) bacteriologist who in 1911 discovered the agent of syphilis as the cause of progressive paralytic disease.
Mother Teresa (1910–1997) Roman Catholic nun and missionary
Helen Keller (1880–1968) author and lecturer who was a deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree
Hijikata Toshizō (1835–1869) Fukucho of Shinsengumi, a great swordsman and a talented military leader who resisted the Meiji Restoration
Saigō Takamori (1828–1877) One of the three great nobles who led the Meiji Restoration.
Princess Diana (1961–1997) Member of British royal family, philanthropist and known for her charity work
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) physicist, known for theory of relativity
Misora Hibari (1937–1989) singer and actress
Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835–1901) Japanese author, writer, teacher, translator, entrepreneur and journalist who founded Keio University
Anne Frank (1929–1945) diarist, known for "Het Achterhuis"
Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing.
Yoshida Shigeru (1878–1967) Prime Minister of Japan
Walt Disney (1901–1966) Entrepreneur, animator, voice actor and film producer.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) German composer and pianist
Minamoto Yoshitsune (1159–1189) Military commander of the Minamoto clan of Japan in the late Heian and early Kamakura periods
Ayrton Senna (1960–1994) One of the greatest formula drivers of all time
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) polymath, universal genius
Tezuka Osamu (1928–1989) Manga artist who created Astro Boy, cartoonist, animator, film producer, medical doctor
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) Emperor of French
Prince Shōtoku (574–622) Semi-legendary regent and a politician of the Asuka period in Japan who served under Empress Suiko.
John Lennon (1940–1980) Member of The Beatles
Zhuge Liang (181–234) Imperial Chancellor and regent of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period
Miyamoto Musashi (1584–1645) Japanese swordsman, philosopher, writer and rōnin.
Ozaki Yutaka (1965–1992) Musician
Audrey Hepburn (1929–1993) British actress during Hollywood's Golden Age, dancer and humanitarian.
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) activist, that led to Indian independence movement against British rule.
Soseki Natsume (1867–1916) novelist
Takasugi Shinsaku (1839–1867) Samurai from the Chōshū Domain of Japan who contributed significantly to the Meiji Restoration.
Murasaki Shikibu novelist and poet
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) Austria's greatest composer
Yamamoto Isoroku (1884–1943) Marshal Admiral of the Navy and the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II
Miyazawa Kenji (1896–1933) author for children's literature
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th President of United States
Ninomiya Sontoku (1787–1856) Agricultural leader, philosopher, moralist and economist
Kondō Isami (1834–1868) Japanese swordsman and official of the late Edo period
Ōkubo Toshimichi (1830–1878) Main founders of Modern Japan.
Takeda Shingen (1521–1573) pre-eminent daimyō in feudal Japan
Himiko (d. 248) was a shaman queen of Yamataikoku in Wa (ancient Japan)
Inō Tadataka (1745–1818) surveyor and cartographer, completed the first map of Modern Japan.
Ishihara Yujiro (1934–1987) actor and singer
Sen no Rikyū (1522–1591) Prominent figure who had influence on chanoyu, the Japanese "Way of Tea", particularly the tradition of wabi-cha
Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) actor of Silent Era
Sugihara Chiune (1900–1986) Government official who served as vice consul for the Japanese Empire in Lithuania
Date Masamune (1567–1636) Regional ruler of Japan's Azuchi–Momoyama period through early Edo period
Tanaka Giichi (1864–1929) Prime Minister of Japan
Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong actor and the greatest martial artist of all time
Okita Sōji (1842–1868) The captain of the first unit of the Shinsengumi, a special police force in Kyoto during the late shogunate period
Matsuda Yusaku (1949–1989) One of Japan's most important actors
Marie Antoinette (1755–1793) The last Queen of France before the French Revolution
Ōishi Kuranosuke (1659–1703) (karō) of the Akō Domain in Harima Province
Ikariya Chosuke (1931–2004) comedian and film actor
Wright Brothers
Katsu Kaishū (1823–1899) statesman and naval engineer during the late Tokugawa shogunate and early Meiji period
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) civil rights activist for black people
Yoshida Shōin (1830–1859) distinguished intellectual in the closing days of the Tokugawa shogunate
Kurosawa Akira (1910–1998) Japan's greatest director
Uesugi Kenshin (1530–1578) daimyō
Marie Curie (1867–1934) physicist and chemist, First woman to win a Nobel Prize
Satō Eisaku (1901–1975) Prime Minister of Japan
Sanada Yukimura (1567–1615) Samurai warrior of the Sengoku period
Cao Cao (155–220) Chinese warlord and the penultimate Chancellor of the Eastern Han dynasty
Kato Daijiro (1976–2003) Grand Prix motorcycle road racer,
Cleopatra (69BC–30BC) the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt
Tokugawa Mitsukuni (1628–1701) Prominent daimyō who was known for his influence in the politics of the early Edo period
Elvis Presley (1935–1977) King of Rock and Roll
Ogi Akira (1935–2005) professional Japanese baseball player, coach and manager
Tōgō Heihachirō (1848–1934) Gensui or admiral of the fleet in the Imperial Japanese Navy and one of Japan's greatest naval heroes
Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) Italian explorer, navigator, and colonizer that discovered America
Itō Hirobumi (1841–1909) statesman and genrō
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) 20th century best painter
Marco Polo (1254–1324) Italian explorer
Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French-German theologian, organist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician.
Yosano Akiko (1878–1942) author and social activist
Andy Hug (1964–2000) Swiss karateka and one of the best kickboxers
Tsuburaya Eiji (1901–1970) special effects director, co-creator of Godzilla
Joan of Arc (1412–1431) Roman Catholic saint
Honda Minako (1967–2005) pop star
Uemura Naomi (1941–1984) adventurer
Sugita Genpaku (1733–1817) scholar known for his translation of Kaitai Shinsho
Confucius (551BC–479BC) ancient philosopher
Jean-Henri Casimir Fabre (1823–1915) French naturalist, entomologist
Natsume Masako (1957–1985) actress
Ferdinand Magellan (1480–1521) Portuguese explorer who organised the Spanish expedition to the East Indies from 1519 to 1522
Honda Soichiro (1906–1991) engineer, founder of Honda
Anne Sullivan (1866–1937) teacher, lifelong companion of Helen Keller
Shohei "Giant" Baba (1938–1999) professional wrestler, co-founder of All Japan Pro Wrestling
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of United States
Dazai Osamu (1909–1948) author
Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) Polish composer
Ikkyū (1391–1481) iconoclastic Japanese Zen Buddhist monk and poet.
Akechi Mitsuhide (1528–1582) samurai and general who lived during the Sengoku period of Feudal Japan
Isaac Newton (1642–1727) physicist and theologian, known for implementing the law of gravity
Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694) most known poet during Edo period
Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) writer, known for creating the character Sherlock Holmes