Perhaps it will be the barbeque aroma of yakitori chicken, the fresh smell of cherry blossoms or maybe even the sulphurous smell of hot springs.

All will be revealed on Monday at an awards ceremony in Tokyo.

The Environment Ministry is running the contest in an attempt to show off Japan's pleasant smells.

The ministry received 600 nominations and has released 100 short-listed smells that are fighting for the top accolade.

Fresh herbs and flowers are popular smells worldwide and could do well on Monday. But as Tokyo-based Peter Hadfield of the New Scientist magazine told the BBC, some smells are distinctly Japanese.

Seaweed shops are on the shortlist, as well as the smell of seaweed harvesting.

"You might not think that the smell of seaweed is something particularly to be savoured but for a lot of Japanese that is a very nice romantic sort of smell," he told the BBC World Service radio programme East Asia Today.

"People here are very sentimental, very emotional."

The Japanese nose

The Japanese, he said, love smells that remind them of happy memories. Many people love the smell of new tatami mats, that every Japanese house owns, because it reminds them of new things, said Mr Hadfield.

But the Western nose tends to be less impressed with such a smell.

"When they're new and green they smell like weeds going bad," said Dr Hadfield. "It's a most revolting smell."

But when it comes to bad smells, there are certain aromas that people worldwide would turn up their noses at.

"Some women I've spoken to say that their worst smell is commuting in the morning when they say they are at armpit level," said Mr Hadfield.