Oricon: who would you want as prime minister?

[Tokyograph News]

With Japan in the middle of a change in prime minister, Oricon conducted a survey about the position. When asked what qualities they wanted to see in their next leader, the top three answers were the ability to take leadership, putting the country and its people first, and the ability to speak one's own mind.

The survey then asked, "Which celebrity is the type of person you would want as the next prime minister?" Those qualities were seemingly best found in veteran director and entertainer Takeshi Kitano.

The top ten also included baseball players Senichi Hoshino (#2), Ichiro Suzuki (#4), and Sadaharu Oh (#6). Comedians Hikaru Ota (#3) and Shinsuke Shimada (#5) filled in the gaps. TV personality Minomonta ranked 7th, while newscaster Tetsuya Chikushi tied for 8th with journalist Shuntaro Torigoe and journalist Yoshiko Sakurai, the only woman on the list.

An additional portion of the survey asked the same question, but applied to actual politicians. Interestingly enough, former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi ranked first. And while Yasuo Fukuda earned the LDP's support as candidate to be the next prime minister, he only ranked 6th in this survey, compared to his opponent Taro Aso at #2.

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