The Most Famous People in East Asia
Top 100 of 112 ranked · August 2026 · See today's live standing →
First issue under methodology v5.62. Movement begins with the next issue frozen under the same version.
Xi Jinping and Jennie lead East Asia, with Abe first of six dead names
iFAMOUS Editorial Desk · 1 min read
China's leader and a South Korean pop star hold the top of the August 2026 regional table, while Japan supplies the most names and the most history.
Xi Jinping is the most famous person in East Asia for August 2026. China's paramount leader, general secretary of the Communist Party and chairman of the Central Military Commission, scores 44, nearly four points ahead of Jennie, the South Korean singer, rapper and actress, at 40.3. The gap to third is wider still: Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving prime minister in Japan's history, sits at 33.8 four years after his death.
Abe is the first of six dead names in the fifteen, an unusually high share for a regional list. Hirohito, emperor from 1926 to 1989, is seventh. Jiang Zemin, general secretary before Hu Jintao, is eighth. Bruce Lee, the first global Chinese movie star, is eleventh. Oda Nobunaga, the Sengoku warlord who died in 1582, is thirteenth, and Genghis Khan, founder of the Mongol Empire, fifteenth. Few regions carry attention this old this high.
The living names split between politics and performance. IU, the South Korean singer and actress, is fourth. Naruhito, the 126th Emperor of Japan, is fifth. Shohei Ohtani, the Dodgers' pitcher and designated hitter, is sixth at 31.8, and Son Heung-min, who captains South Korea and now plays for Los Angeles FC, ninth, so the region's two most followed athletes both work in Los Angeles. Hu Jintao is tenth, Jung Kook of BTS twelfth, and Park Geun-hye, South Korea's president from 2013 to 2017, fourteenth.
Japan supplies 45 of the hundred names, South Korea 34 and China 14, though China holds first place. Of the hundred, 62 are living. Evidence coverage is rated medium. The picture is of a region whose present is led from Beijing and Seoul and whose past is remembered from Tokyo.
| Rank | Name | Score | Live |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Xi Jinping  politicianAlive | 44.0 | iFANN → |
| 2 |  Jennie  celebrityAlive | 40.3 | iFANN → |
| 3 |  Shinzo Abe  politician | 33.8 | iFANN → |
| 4 |  IU celebrityAlive | 33.0 | iFANN → |
| 5 |  Naruhito celebrityAlive | 32.8 | iFANN → |
| 6 |  Shohei Ohtani celebrityAlive | 31.8 | iFANN → |
| 7 |  Hirohito politician | 31.5 | iFANN → |
| 8 |  Jiang Zemin politician | 31.5 | iFANN → |
| 9 |  Son Heung-min celebrityAlive | 31.5 | iFANN → |
| 10 |  Hu Jintao politicianAlive | 31.1 | iFANN → |
| 11 |  Bruce Lee celebrity | 30.6 | iFANN → |
| 12 |  Jung Kook celebrityAlive | 30.4 | iFANN → |
| 13 |  Oda Nobunaga celebrity | 30.4 | iFANN → |
| 14 |  Park Geun-hye politicianAlive | 30.0 | iFANN → |
| 15 |  Genghis Khan  celebrity | 30.0 | iFANN → |
| 16 |  Lee Jae Myung politicianAlive | 30.0 | iFANN → |
| 17 |  Hayao Miyazaki celebrityAlive | 30.0 | iFANN → |
| 18 |  Jimin celebrityAlive | 29.9 | iFANN → |
| 19 |  Jin celebrityAlive | 29.9 | iFANN → |
| 20 |  Hokusai celebrity | 29.9 | iFANN → |
| 21 |  Moon Jae-in politicianAlive | 29.7 | iFANN → |
| 22 |  Mao Zedong politician | 29.4 | iFANN → |
| 23 |  Deng Xiaoping politician | 29.1 | iFANN → |
| 24 |  Donald Trump  politicianAlive | 29.1 | iFANN → |
| 25 |  Yoon Suk Yeol politicianAlive | 29.1 | iFANN → |
| 26 |  Akira Kurosawa celebrity | 29.0 | iFANN → |
| 27 |  Tokugawa Ieyasu celebrity | 29.0 | iFANN → |
| 28 |  Roh Moo-hyun politician | 28.8 | iFANN → |
| 29 |  Park Chung Hee politician | 28.7 | iFANN → |
| 30 |  Toyotomi Hideyoshi politician | 28.5 | iFANN → |
| 31 |  Yukio Mishima public figure | 28.3 | iFANN → |
| 32 |  Haruki Murakami celebrityAlive | 28.2 | iFANN → |
| 33 |  Matsuo Bashō celebrity | 28.1 | iFANN → |
| 34 |  Psy celebrityAlive | 27.7 | iFANN → |
| 35 |  Jackie Chan celebrityAlive | 27.5 | iFANN → |
| 36 |  Murasaki Shikibu celebrity | 27.0 | iFANN → |
| 37 |  Sanae Takaichi politicianAlive | 27.0 | iFANN → |
| 38 |  Ichiro Suzuki celebrityAlive | 26.9 | iFANN → |
| 39 |  G-Dragon celebrityAlive | 26.8 | iFANN → |
| 40 |  Ayumi Hamasaki celebrityAlive | 26.3 | iFANN → |
| 41 |  Lee Myung-bak politicianAlive | 26.0 | iFANN → |
| 42 |  V (Kim Taehyung) celebrityAlive | 25.9 | iFANN → |
| 43 |  Michael Jackson celebrity | 25.6 | iFANN → |
| 44 |  Li Keqiang politician | 25.5 | iFANN → |
| 45 |  Yasunari Kawabata celebrity | 25.5 | iFANN → |
| 46 |  Cristiano Ronaldo  celebrityAlive | 25.3 | iFANN → |
| 47 |  Song Joong-ki celebrityAlive | 25.1 | iFANN → |
| 48 |  Zhu Rongji politicianAlive | 25.1 | iFANN → |
| 49 |  Yayoi Kusama celebrityAlive | 25.1 | iFANN → |
| 50 |  Kim Dae-jung politician | 25.0 | iFANN → |
| 51 |  Takeshi Kitano celebrityAlive | 25.0 | iFANN → |
| 52 |  Ban Ki-moon politicianAlive | 25.0 | iFANN → |
| 53 |  Keisuke Honda celebrityAlive | 24.8 | iFANN → |
| 54 |  Chun Doo-hwan politician | 24.6 | iFANN → |
| 55 |  Hwasa celebrityAlive | 24.5 | iFANN → |
| 56 |  Syngman Rhee politician | 24.4 | iFANN → |
| 57 |  Emperor Meiji celebrity | 24.4 | iFANN → |
| 58 |  Toshirō Mifune celebrity | 24.4 | iFANN → |
| 59 |  Jisoo celebrityAlive | 24.3 | iFANN → |
| 60 |  Yuna Kim celebrityAlive | 24.2 | iFANN → |
| 61 |  Park Ji-Sung celebrityAlive | 24.1 | iFANN → |
| 62 |  Lionel Messi  celebrityAlive | 24.1 | iFANN → |
| 63 |  Itō Hirobumi politician | 24.1 | iFANN → |
| 64 |  Tarō Asō politicianAlive | 24.1 | iFANN → |
| 65 |  Osamu Tezuka celebrity | 24.1 | iFANN → |
| 66 |  Yoshihide Suga politicianAlive | 24.0 | iFANN → |
| 67 |  Zhou Enlai politician | 24.0 | iFANN → |
| 68 |  Rain celebrityAlive | 23.9 | iFANN → |
| 69 |  Fumio Kishida politicianAlive | 23.8 | iFANN → |
| 70 |  Isoroku Yamamoto public figure | 23.6 | iFANN → |
| 71 |  Yoko Ono public figureAlive | 23.5 | iFANN → |
| 72 |  Yuzuru Hanyū celebrityAlive | 23.5 | iFANN → |
| 73 |  Miyamoto Musashi celebrity | 23.4 | iFANN → |
| 74 |  Shinji Kagawa celebrityAlive | 23.4 | iFANN → |
| 75 |  Junichiro Koizumi politicianAlive | 23.3 | iFANN → |
| 76 |  Hideki Tojo politician | 23.3 | iFANN → |
| 77 |  Wen Jiabao politicianAlive | 23.0 | iFANN → |
| 78 |  Justin Bieber  celebrityAlive | 22.9 | iFANN → |
| 79 |  Bae Suzy celebrityAlive | 22.8 | iFANN → |
| 80 |  Osamu Dazai celebrity | 22.8 | iFANN → |
| 81 |  Liu Xiaobo celebrity | 22.8 | iFANN → |
| 82 |  Akira Toriyama celebrity | 22.7 | iFANN → |
| 83 |  Jun Ji-hyun celebrityAlive | 22.7 | iFANN → |
| 84 |  Kei Nishikori celebrityAlive | 22.7 | iFANN → |
| 85 |  Ryūnosuke Akutagawa celebrity | 22.6 | iFANN → |
| 86 |  Natsume Sōseki celebrity | 22.6 | iFANN → |
| 87 |  Yūto Nagatomo celebrityAlive | 22.6 | iFANN → |
| 88 |  Fan Bingbing celebrityAlive | 22.5 | iFANN → |
| 89 |  Naomi Osaka celebrityAlive | 22.5 | iFANN → |
| 90 |  Jang Won-young celebrityAlive | 22.4 | iFANN → |
| 91 |  Jesus Christ historical figure | 22.4 | iFANN → |
| 92 |  Kim Soo-hyun celebrityAlive | 22.4 | iFANN → |
| 93 |  Kim Go-eun celebrityAlive | 22.4 | iFANN → |
| 94 |  Yu Aoi celebrityAlive | 22.3 | iFANN → |
| 95 |  Shigeru Ishiba politicianAlive | 22.2 | iFANN → |
| 96 |  Son Ye-jin celebrityAlive | 22.2 | iFANN → |
| 97 |  Han Kang celebrityAlive | 22.0 | iFANN → |
| 98 |  Lee Kang-in celebrityAlive | 22.0 | iFANN → |
| 99 |  Naoto Kan politicianAlive | 22.0 | iFANN → |
| 100 |  Ryuichi Sakamoto celebrity | 22.0 | iFANN → |
About this list
This list ranks the most famous people of East Asia as of August 2026, by overall global fame rather than one month's attention: the top 100 of 112 names the rankings measured across the region, frozen as the permanent record of that edition. This is the standard reading: everyone, living or dead, on one scale. 62 of the 100 listed are living; the Alive reading restricts the same ranking to living people.
Xi Jinping is No. 1 on this list for August 2026. Behind Xi Jinping come Jennie and Shinzo Abe. Evidence coverage for this list is medium; positions near the bottom of the table may shift as coverage improves.
What famous means here
Fame, in iFAMOUS, is how widely the world knows a name: how recognisable a person's name, face or work is, and how well people know who they are. It is assessed from extensive historical and current public data, some of it reaching back more than twenty years, and it is not merit, talent, importance or popularity on iFANN. The rankings model real-world global fame, not internet fame; the data is the instrument, not the subject. Activity on iFANN itself is excluded.
The month in the title is the date of this edition, not the period measured. The list is a snapshot of overall fame as it stood when the issue was frozen: a name does not lose its place because one month was quiet, and a trending moment alone does not put a name here. Trending attention is published separately on ifann.net.
How the list was ranked
The iFANN Global Fame Rankings combine worldwide Wikipedia readership across languages, worldwide news coverage and search interest anchored against stable reference names, with search history reaching back to 2004. A twelve-month baseline sits behind the current reading and short-lived surges are capped, so the list reflects durable recognition rather than one week of headlines. Rankings are computed daily on ifann.net and frozen on the second day of the following month as that month's issue; a published issue never changes.
About East Asia
East Asia is one of the countries and regions the journal ranks every month. Country lists use the same rankings and the same scale as The 100, so a name can be compared with its neighbours and against the world.
Powered by iFANN
iFAMOUS is published by iFANN and powered by the iFANN Global Fame Rankings v5.62. Today's live standing for this list is on ifann.net; the journal freezes it once a month so it can be cited permanently.
Related searches: most famous people in East Asia 2026, top celebrities in East Asia August 2026, East Asia fame ranking, most famous person in East Asia.
"Xi Jinping, No. 1 on The Most Famous People in East Asia", iFAMOUS No. 1 (August 2026), ifamous.org