Research firm Oricon conducted an online survey of 900 people to find out which celebrities they felt would be most effective as a salesperson.

As expected, the #1 salesman was Takuya Kimura of idol group SMAP, who was even ranked third by male respondents. Rather surprising was the appearance of Sanma Akashiya at #2. Yuji Oda and Shinsuke Shimada tied for third, followed by Masaharu Fukuyama and Kotaro Koizumi. Tomomitsu Yamaguchi and Masahiro Nakai tied for #7, with Satoshi Tsumabuki and Shosuke Tanihara rounding out the top ten.

Among female celebrities, actress Ryoko Shinohara stood out on top, getting the most votes from both men and women. The rest of the rankings were: Masami Hisamoto, Makiko Esumi, Yukie Nakama, Norika Fujiwara, Hitomi Kuroki, Yuki Amami, Misako Ito and Nanako Matsushima (tied for 9th), and Kaori Manabe.