The Japanese are a very orderly people, and they like to organize their world into tidy little lists they call “rankings” (rankingu).

The other day I caught an interesting show on TV entitled “100 People the Japanese Like - Genius Version,” which introduced the top 100 visionaries, innovators and thinkers in history, as chosen by an online poll. In addition to international figures who are very dear to the Japanese, the forefathers of the Meiji Restoration and a few Emperors from ancient China, many on the list of the most respected geniuses were soldiers who fought during Japan’s “Country at War” period.

Here are some of the more interesting entries:

33. Walt Disney (founder of Tokyo Disneyland — just kidding)
31. Soseki Natsume (the most famous Japanese writer of the 19th century)
24. Akira Kurosawa (renowned filmmaker)
18. William Shakespere (famous for tormenting Japanese students of English)
14. Charlie Chaplain (he made several visits to Japan and is very popular here)
13. Ryoma Sakamoto (freedom fighter against the Shogunate, also famous for popularizing Western boots in Japan)
11. Tezuka Osamu (creator of Astro Boy and of anime and manga as we know it)
10. The Wright Brothers (first aviators)
9. Amadeus Mozart (decomposing composer)
8. Nobunaga Oda (the first of three successful unifiers of modern Japan)
5. Hideo Noguchi (researcher who helped isolate yellow fever, later died of yellow fever)
4. Shokatsu Komei (legendary figure from China’s history, famous for making Chinese manju bread with meat inside, now sold at 7-11)
3. Thomas Edison (inventor and shrewd businessman, created the electric chair to make his competition look bad)
2. Leonardo da Vinci (Michelangelo wasn’t too happy about this)
1. Albert Einstein (who also loved Japan during his several month visit — he even had a favorite bento restaurant in Nihonbashi, Tokyo)

And if you want to read the whole list in Japanese, go to this page.