世論 What Japan Thinks

As part of DIMSDRIVE Research’s 91st Ranking Research, they published the result of a survey into which inventor to thank for the world today. They surveyed 6,008 people from their monitor pool over six days in mid-August. It might be interesting to cross-reference this post with a previous ranking survey on the top company founders or presidents.

Q: Please tell me which inventor you think that thanks to him, we are where we are (Sample size=6,088, free answer)

Rank	Person	Votes	My thoughts
1	Thomas Edison	3,383	Definitely a prolific inventor, but he achieved as much success thanks to dodgy business practices and trial and error as with actual inventive processes, but still deseving of over half the vote.
2	Yoshiro Nakamatsu (Doctor NakaMats)	129	The ultimate mad inventor! As much of his stuff is useless as is practical, but an entertaining character whenever I’ve seen him on the television.
3	Graham Bell	113	He’s just there thanks to being first to the patent office, if one wants to by cynical about it.
4	Wright Brothers	66	Were they really inventors or just engineers? If we are discussing airplane-related inventions, I’d choose Frank Whittle myself.
5	Leonardo Da Vinci	53	He definitely invented a good few things, and I’m surprised he’s not higher ranked.
6	Albert Einstein	52	He started out as a patent clerk, but he discovered, not invented, things. Energy wasn’t equal to something other than mass times the speed of light squared until he came along!
7	Konosuke Matsushita	38	He invented a good few things after founding the company that gives us the Panasonic, National and other brands, but is as much known as a management philosopher, I would reckon. His hero and role model, however, was Thomas Edison apparently.
8	James Watt	34	The second Scot on the list, but I’m surprised that John Logie Baird isn’t also here.
9	Bill Gates	34	Bill Gates? He’s probably got a good few patents to his name, but he didn’t really invent DOS or Windows all by himself.
10	Hideyo Noguchi	26	Another strange choice – a microbiologist by trade, who discovered the causes of syphilitic spirochetes, but didn’t invent anything of note.

Looking at the results by sex of the respondents, we see this:

Q: Please tell me which inventor you think that thanks to him, we are where we are (Sample size=6,088 by sex, free answer)

Rank	Male N=3,135	Votes	Female N=2,953	Votes
1	Thomas Edison	1,813	Thomas Edison	1,570
2	Yoshiro Nakamatsu (Doctor NakaMats)	70	Graham Bell	65
3	Graham Bell	48	Yoshiro Nakamatsu (Doctor NakaMats)	59
4	Albert Einstein	31	Wright Brothers	40
5	Leonardo Da Vinci	30	Leonardo Da Vinci	23
6	Wright Brothers	26	Albert Einstein	21
7	James Watt	23	Konosuke Matsushita	18
8	Konosuke Matsushita	20	Bill Gates	16
9	Bill Gates	17	Hideoyo Noguchi	16
10	Alfred Nobel	15	Issac Newton	13

One could note that women found the inventor of the telephone more notable than men did. Looking at the more detailed breakdown by age, the only woman to be featured is Marie Curie, mentioned by just two women in their twenties.