Media Personality of the Year: Hideo Higashikokubaru.
Citizens' confidence in politics hit a new low in 2007. Scandals have always been as common as bad combovers in Nagata-cho, but this year it was almost as if there was a competition to see who could bring the most shame on the public sector. And on top of all that, there was Shinzo Abe, who everyone — regardless of ideology — agrees was one of the worst prime ministers the Liberal Democratic Party has ever produced.
In any year, the election of comedian Sonomanma Higashi to the governorship of Miyazaki Prefecture would have attracted media attention, but there was something about the former funnyman's new sober image under his birth name Hideo Higashikokubaru that made him stand out even more prominently against this background of relentless venality and stupidity.