世論 What Japan Thinks

Here’s another strange ranking from goo Ranking, this time looking at which historical figure you’d like to talk to in a seance.

Demographics

Over the 21st and 22nd of February 2008 1,052 people from the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.7% were female, 6.4% in their teens, 15.7% in their twenties, 31.0% in their thirties, 26.6% in their forties, 11.2% in their fifties, and 9.1% aged sixty or over. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Pretending for a minute that seances are nothing more than ways to part fools from their money, I’d choose to talk to Leonardo Da Vinci. He does seem a bit of a strange omission, as is Michelangelo, especially as Galileo makes an appearance.

I also suspect they filtered out answers for founders of religions and sects, which is a bit disappointing, so I’ll ask you instead:

Ranking results

Q: Which figure from history would you like to talk to at a seance? (Sample size=1,052)

Rank		Score
1	Oda Nobunaga, daimyo from Japanese middle ages	100
2	Sakamoto Ryoma, played a crucial role in starting the modernisation of Japan	95.1
3	Prince Shotoku, established Japanese government in 7th century	85.6
4	Himiko, ancient queen, perhaps founded the Ise Shrine, the home of Shinto	83.7
5	Marie Antoinette	58.0
6	John F. Kennedy	53.8
7	Tutankhamun	53.8
8	Napoleon Bonaparte	49.6
9	Galileo	48.1
10	Jeanne d’Arc/Joan of Arc	46.6
11	Minamoto no Yoshitsune, 12th century warrior	44.3
12	Hijikata Toshizo, opposed the Meiji Restoration in the 19th century	39.8
13	Okita Soji, a member of the Shinsengumi along with Hijikatra Toshizo	38.6
14	Yukio Mishima, author and playwright who committed ritual suicide in 1970	37.1
15	Yoshida Shoin, intellectual who contributed towards the Meiji Restoration	28.4
16	Osamu Dazai, early 20th century author	27.7
17	Kond? Isami, the leader of the Shinsengumi	27.7
18	Ry?nosuke Akutagawa, short story writer who committed suicide young	27.3
19	Ito Hirobumi, the first, fifth, seventh and tenth prime minister of Japan	25.0
20	Sasaki Kojiro, Edo period swordsman	24.6