[Anchorman]

Gunma Prefecture has the ugliest women in Japan, according to Shukan Shincho (8/9), which cites the results of an online survey that gave the rustic prefecture the lowest rank of women's beauty in any of Japan's 47 prefectures.

Some men in Gunma were not surprised by the results.

"Now that you mention it, there aren't many pretty women in Gunma," a student from the Gunma Prefecture city of Takasaki tells Shukan Shincho. "I remember when I went up to Tokyo to go to college that I was really surprised by how many cute girls there were around."

Gunma Prefectural Government officials were predictably less than pleased by the results of the survey with about 4,400 respondents.

"It probably means not a lot of people from Gunma voted," a prefectural government spokesman snorts. "That's why Gunma finished last."

Keio University associate professor Makio Mukai, whose Gunma native wife Chiaki was Japan's first female astronaut, was also angered by the results of the poll.

"There's something I want to say loudly about this. Empress Michiko is a Gunma native and nobody would call her ugly. This poll was really rude," he says.

It's not the first time Gunma's homely maidens have come last in a beauty ranking of Japan's 47 prefectures. In 1993, a survey of 800 managers from top Japanese companies asked them to rank Japan's prefectures by the beauty of their women. Gunma came in dead last.

Prefectural government officials concede that standards differ in Gunma when compared with other prefectures.

"Gunma is famous for its really strong winds, so when people are outside, they have to talk in very loud voices or nobody can hear what they're saying. The big, booming voices needed just to talk are probably the complete opposite of aspects generally regarded as ladylike," the government official tells Shukan Shincho.

Astronaut's husband Mukai, however, refuses to give ground.

"Looking at my wife you can tell, but Gunma women are all about getting things done. For ages Gunma women have had the greatest ratio of women with driving licenses than anywhere else in the country," he says. "Gunma women take things easy. They couldn't care less about things like fashion. My wife hardly wears any make-up."

Rakugo comic -- and Gunma native -- Danshiro Tatekawa says the poor image of Gunma gals comes from the local dialect, where most sentences end with the phrase "danbe" (instead of the "desu" of standard Japanese), which creates a sound harsh to many Japanese ears.

"Gunma has really got a lot of good women," he says. "All the women I dated from Gunma were wonderful."

Hostesses at Shiroibara, one of the oldest cabaret clubs in Tokyo's posh Ginza district, all have their photos displayed according to the prefecture of their birth. The girls from Gunma, who wouldn't be able to work at such a prestigious club without at least a modicum of beauty, are hardly perturbed by claims that their home prefecture accounts for Japan's ugliest women.

"Gunma is never going to end up being selected at number 1 like Akita Prefecture, so rather than be neither here nor there, I reckon finishing last is good," Gunma-born hostess Miku tells Shukan Shincho. "Besides, it gives us something to talk about. Here's a toast to Gunma -- home of Japan's ugliest women." (By Ryann Connell)