Going over some of the comments here, I guess people really need some form of confirmation from people other than themselves to feel that their opinion has any relevance even to themselves. Usually, the mindless, over-zealous fans.
I'm more interested in the way the survey was conducted. It's obviously biased (for one, it's skewed toward a certain age group and most likely Oricon subscribers) seeing as aiko makes yet another appearance (not to say that her music is bad or anything but placing her ahead of Masaharu Fukuyama in the popularity department?).
I have to disagree with Sunshine Slayer regarding the overall results: this isn't the music scene in Japan. It's what a certain fanbase wants to believe the music scene is like. Seeing that most of the population in Japan is much older, I believe that the teens and twenty year olds are over-represented.
Ayu or Koda Kumi shouldn't be on this list, but neither should several who are actually on it. But at least Arashi is on top and that's accurate. Everything else is contestable.
Personally, I like that Hikki appears on this list. It means that I can say, with some crude evidence, that Hikki will always be overrated and overvalued
