CNN made their ‘Tokyo Hotlist‘ and only 20 of the most ‘shining’ stars beat out the rest. Some may surprise you, some are probably obvious.

Did your favorite celebrity make the list? We’re splitting this in two part and working our way down starting from #20.

20. Keisuke Honda: He is a football fashion icon. The 24-year-old was the midfielder in the World Cup and replaced Hidetoshi Nakata as the sports fashion icon with his bleached hair and good looks. Keisuke currently plays for the CSKA Moscow and debuted in the UEFA Champions League against Seville, scoring the winning goal.

19: AKB48: This group needs no introduction. Why did they make the list? According to CNN, they are “likely to be the most unavoidable force in the Japanese entertainment industry for some time to come.” This stems from the not just the number of members they have, but because of the “ubiquity they now have on all media in Japan.” Even though there are Hello! Project and other idol groups out there, lately AKB48 has been in the media a little bit more.

18. Yoshikazu Tanaka: 32-years-old, CEO of GREE, an  IT entrepreneur – took his company to #2 right after Mixi, Japan’s #1 social networking site. GREE is a social networking site with games galore. He is the youngest self-made billionare in Asia and the second youngest in the world right after Mark Zuckerber (Facebook). GREE maybe #2, but they are #1 in profits and revenues. He is also 24 on “Forbes” Japan richest list and dubbed “the next Bill Gates.” His value: $850M with a net worth of $1.6B.

17: Maki Nishiyama: a.k.a Ebi-chan 2.0. Maki is a CanCam model who replaced top model, Yuri “Ebi-chan” Ebihara in 2008. Maki surpassed all expectation and is the ‘heroine’ for the young OL’s. She has her own bridal collection too. In 2008 she was in the rumor-ville for having a ‘relationship’ with Jin Akanishi.

16. Yu Darvish: The half Iranian/Japanese baseball player is well, just smokin’ hot. He’s got physical prowness and movie-star good looks and is pitcher for the Nippon Ham Fighters. From the L.A. times a reporter reported, “I could write my scouting report in one word,’ said a scout from a National League team who didn’t want other organizations to know he was scouting the pitcher.’Stud’.”

15. Mao Asada: This ice skater is ranked third in the world as of May 2010. She became Japan’s heart, no thanks to her ‘little sister’ looks and cheery attitude. She won second in the Winter Olympics, gold in the 2010 World Figure Skating Championships and is the ideal spokes model for commercial interest.

14. Yuya Nara: Japan’s ‘Hollywood’ stylist. He’s a celebrity among his celebrity clients. He works with “Vogue Hommes Japan” and has styled Lady Gaga and the Olsen Twins.

13. Tao Okamoto: Dubbed the next supermodel, this model made a statement with her ‘rice bowl’ hair cut, that landed her Ralph Lauren’s campaign in 2009. She’s walked on nearly every big brand runway you can think of. Designer Phillip Lim had all his models in her hairstyle for his fashion show. Tao is now the model Ford Model.

12. Kayo Ume: A 28-year-old photographer that has made Japan’s photography world “not boring” and “artsy and serious.” Her photography delves into a devilish sense of humor and has an errie ability to “catch the world’s silly foibles at the perfect instant.” She is the inheritor of the 1990s ‘girl’s photography’ boom in Japan.

11. Makoto Azuma: A former guitarist of a grunge rock band, 33-yeear-old Makoto has moved onto flower arrangement and is making more of a name for himself. He has done exhibitions overseas that show a “neo-Japonseque” side, but his recent one GYRE, Distortion x Flowers included BOSS distortion pedals in a bed of flowers making that arrangement a “perfect melded rock” of aesthetics.

source: cnn