77% of Americans have favorable view of Japan
A newly released survey from Gallup shows that most Americans have a favorable view of Japan:
The results for some countries, such as Mexico, France, and Israel varied greatly depending on the age and political affiliation of people being asked. Japan, however received “similar ratings from the broad age and partisan groups.”
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Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics.
Who can trust a poll like that when 14% have a “total favorable” view of North Korea.
The only thing this poll shows is that most Americans are too freaking stupid to know basic world geography (or simple politics).
And it’s unclear whether American’s are truly modern civilized people – because only a tiny percentage still hold a grudge against their foes in WWII, or is it once again they’re just too stupid to understand who those countries actually are? Lets hope it’s the first one.
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well i feel like that’s a bit of a generalization. it’s not clear what kind of questions were asked. if you were to ask about the north korean regime, i’d have a negative view, but i generally have a positive view of north korean people, because i don’t feel they’re to blame for being born into unfortunate circumstances.
just the same, i don’t know that the 16% who hold unfavorable views of Japan are expressing lasting resentment over the war, or resentment over the outdated view that Japanese motor companies are stealing American jobs.
all things considered, i feel that this graph doesn’t really adequately answer any questions about American opinions of the world.
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What’s with the large “thumbs down” count?
Is it American viewers that are upset that I call the average American dumb? If so, you need to be upset, angry, livid even – but not at me – at your government that pisses away the most per student money in the world yet can only hover at the bottom of the 60-70 percentile in student competency. Yeah, your public education model is working oh so well eh?
Or it it people with pointy little brains that interpret my comment about polls being inaccurate as sometype of negative remark on the 77% Americans love Japan headline. Just to clarify, I didn’t – yeah for Americans that love Japan – everyone should – I just don’t believe the poll is all that accurate because of the relatively high numbers of people saying they also support bad countries like Iran and North Korea.
So step up – if you’re going to “thumbs down” a comment – have the guts and the brain power to write a rebuttal or counter point instead of cowering behind the obscurity of a simple button press.
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It’s your condescending tone and attitude in your posts that gets it for me.
Take a look at the post by “parts” that is just under your first post. Perhaps from that you’ll get an idea of how to respond in a dispassionate sort of way so that you don’t have to resort to name-calling.
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Compared to last year, Japan actually dropped compared to Germany.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/115258/canada-remains-americans-favored-nation.aspx
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The margin of error is 3 to 4%, so the values don’t seem to have changed much at all.
I agree if it is so, but still, I have doubts about countries other than first 5.
I’ll reply to posts that reflect that issue.
Thanks for the margin mention, it should be considered, true.
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What a relief!
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I do not trust polls. (unless people have to vote with their
money…. or with ballots in an election)
Over the years, I have always answered polls conducted on the
streets, over the phone, or the internet. My answeres were
always 100% pure BS. Not once have I answered truthfully.
They want to waste my time, so I might as well waste theirs.
(my usual profile is a 52-year-old divorced parent with 3
kids, making USD$220,000 annually, with a PhD degree
education, working in a Fortune 500 company as an assistant
to the mailroom intern, my company provides 100% free health
plan and free company car for spouses)
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Yes, let’s thumbs-down everyone who opposes unverified random polls with high margins of error.
Also, they don’t go so far as to define what a “favorable view” consists of. I have a relatively “favorable view” of a lot of places I would never want to visit or live in. Germany, for example. Dubai, for seconds. Great places, I’m sure, but I don’t care to go there.
As someone once said: “75% of statistics can be made to say whatever you want, 100% of the time”.
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No, let’s thumbs-down everyone who takes unverified random polls with high (3-4% is high?) margins of error as proof that “most Americans are too freaking stupid to know basic world geography (or simple politics).”
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4% of the American population is hovering around 12,000,000 people. I’d say that’s a pretty good margin of error.
Assuming 25% of Americans vote in an election, could you imagine there being a 4% margin or error in the reported votes? That would still be 3 million votes that may or may not be correct. Margins that high aren’t acceptable in the real world.
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I’m digging the guy down because he purposely gives false answers to polls. No other reason. It’s thanks to guys like him that polls like this can be so inaccurate.
Is it so hard to answer questions truthfully? Or just don’t answer at all if you don’t want to answer truthfully.
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This isn’t Digg, we don’t ‘digg up’ or ‘digg down’ our comments. For the record, there’s also no bury button.
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people like you are what the margin of error is for.
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The obvious question an average American would be faced with is:”WHAT do I know about thee 20 countries”.
NOT undermining the educational system, value system or knowledge of the average, but there is no one that will convince me that most people know anything about Yemen f.i.
However everything other country is based, as someone said on the news and recent war reports, or “unfavorable” governments, by the US, that are portrayed; yes some even are as totalitarian, WMD producers, overthrown governments, and general dissaray US needs to stomp on.
Iran, N. Korea, Afghanistan, The Palestine, Pakistan, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, even China, what does it mean to have an unfavorable opinion on, about what?
Their governmental, school, medical, military, cultural, foreign office politics or system?
Or going as far as moron would about their people, based on what, average American NEVER met most if any of the people from these countries if he had not visited them, 80% HAD NOT even visited any of these countries EVER, and can only either get input from children from those countries that came or are by some nature in the US, news????.
So we have to ask ourselves, what does favorable represent?
If I was to be asked to answer about 20 countries with 4 different kind of answers v.fav, m.fav, m.ufav, v.ufav; FIRST thing I would ask is “In what way?”
As people, as a nation, as a culture, as a political system, as…
It is absolutely idiotic to present the view of very few with a high error margin asking vague questions, and drawing a conclusion.
Also I have posted the previous year to reflect what countries are new on the list, such as Yemen.
I also think this sentence at the beginning of the 2010 article is the key:”‘Americans’ perceptions of 20 nations that figure prominently in the news or U.S. foreign policy held quite steady in the first year of the Obama administration. ”
As a closure, I would also like to pay attention to:”that’s because most Americans are obsessed with anime, asian girls and making chopstick use trendy”.
Which I believe not to be true at all, maybe for ages <24, and those that casually wander trough superficial culture understanding.
It would be the same idiocy as saying Most Japanese are obsessed with blonds, silicone breast implants, Playboy, Marvel comic superheroes, hotrod t bucket model cars, Elvis and burgers, because they think it is trendy.
Due to government education and the lack of funding there of, in the US not many have the opportunity to travel, and less to learn about other cultures other then their own, and at that in a local fashion, as nowadays they even cut out the Civil war from history.
What respect does one think anyone would have if children do not learn their own history.
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TL;DR
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that’s because most Americans are obsessed with anime, asian girls and making chopstick use trendy.
if it came down to whether they respected the Japanese people, i doubt you’d find the same result.
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I don’t know where you get your view of Americans, but it’s radically different from the one I know. Vast majority of citizens couldn’t care less about anime, prefer white girls, and actively hate/avoid chopsticks (it’s too hard! Just use a fork!).
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“that’s because most Americans are obsessed with anime, asian girls and making chopstick use trendy.”
I don’t think that’s true. Most Americans have a positive view of Japan because they have no reason not to. Most Americans have had positive experiences with the Japanese products they’ve bought and the Japanese people they have met; and yes, anime, manga and Japanese girls have generally found a receptive audience in the States. So, what’s the problem?
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That’s what I ask my gf every morning. Do you honney have favorable view of me ?
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And 23% of Yemenis were like, “Who?”
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North Korea in the list, but they don’t care about the south one?
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that’s what I was wondering as well….
unless it’s true what they say….. that South Korea is the 51 State of the United States? Anthony Bourdain(travel
channel host) once made the mistake of saying just that.
(but in a nice way of complimenting South Korea)
also, why is AUSTRALIA not on the list?
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Guys, the article and the survey says:
nations that figure prominently in the news or U.S. foreign policy held quite steady in the first year of the Obama administration.
So South Korea was not in them, in the first year much, apart from North provocations and border incidents.
As for Australia, it was not in the US news at all, so they do not mention it.
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i guess that gallup just prevented the risk to compare s,korea with japan. guess what will happen if the result say japan is favored by usa more than s korea?
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“Americans’ perceptions of 20 nations that figure prominently in the news or U.S. foreign policy held quite steady in the first year of the Obama administration.”
That quote is from the original article. It seems that South Korea doesn’t figure as prominently in the news or foreign policy as the 20 other nations–which is not so surprising. It’s also not surprising when Japanophiles find a way to work in a dig against Korea, even when it’s completely off topic.
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Well it’s not so surprising but not so irrelevant either, as South Korea is the only member of the 6-party talks that is not on the list.
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“It’s also not surprising when Japanophiles find a way to work in a dig against Korea”
you meant someone dig at korea? if so, dont worry its powerless compare to japan bashing by ppl who hate jp over the years.
btw,through the experience of world cup, wbc, olympic games etc, i am convinced that any competition or conparison with jp makes them flammable.(especially korean media) i just thought if gallup did it for the same reason i guessed its in the right way.
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Oh yeah – I hadn’t noticed. Well, I guess that means that South Korea’s “Do you know??” billboards/shopping bags/drycleaning bags/t-shirts/etc. campaign has been less effective than they thought it would be as a means to raise attention to themselves.
Perhaps they should reflect on this – “Do you know?? No-one gives a crap.”
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South Korea is marketing themselves in America? I’ve seen no advertisements at all.
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Not the government per se, but right-wing groups:
http://www.japanprobe.com/2008/07/10/korean-ultra-nationalist-group-pays-for-new-york-times-advertisement-about-sea-of-japan/
http://www.japanprobe.com/2009/03/21/korean-drycleaners-want-americans-to-care-about-dokdo/
http://www.japanprobe.com/2009/09/07/dokdo-bus-in-new-york-city/
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Thanks for the info LB!
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Boy, 64% still hate Cuba? I guess the Red Menace is still alive in many Americans’ hearts.
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Old grudges die last for some it appears, especially missile crisis-es.
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People in Germany or UK have unfavorable views of US. Americans or US does not have a very good ring. Come to think of it, US probably is one of the countries in the world which has the worst reputation.
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What a crock. Who in the heck are they asking? I’m in California. I can tell you, without hesitation, that besides wanting the best goods and things that are made in Japan – electronics, mainly – people here don’t care a bit about the Japanese people, and still think that Japan is a threat in the Pacific.
In fact, take a look at the South Pacific revival. And the HBO series “The Pacific” and the game “Modern Warfare: World at War.”
America hates Japan and its people – but as long as Japan makes good stuff that don’t break, that’s about as far as they want to know about Japan. And sushi. But then most of the sushi restaurants in California are run by Koreans pretending to be Japanese. It’s hard to find real Japanese sushi places – and if you do – they are much more expensive and have really good fish compared to the fake, cheap places.
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I would agree that the survey is a crock for all the reasons mentioned above. Yet, somehow I believe that your statement that most Americans hate Japan is in error.
It seems to me that they watch the culture with appreciation and anticipation, even if without much understanding. My nieces, I know, are big fans of the culture. So are many others of the younger generation–particularly the online culture.
Granted you won’t hear them chear: Nippon-cha-cha-cha, but you will find them rooting on Ichiro, or rushing to the next big Ghibli film, or trying to get their hands on some anime comic.
Just my experience. YMMV
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Nah, Yohijimbo,
The dude’s right. Pockets, only pockets and very small pockets of people “appreciate” Japanese culture or whatever. Very small. If you’re exposed to it like you described with anime and stuff – yeah may be. The young ones are becoming more receptive, they hardly care what happened last century, but alas – they are also reminded every year that Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and did other nasty things around Asia. Add to that the fact that the kids don’t really study WW2’s imprisonment camps for the Japs within the U.S. If you walk the streets and ask them what happened, they’d be like “what? Seriously? We did that here?”
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Slapper, do you agree with Chunks that “Americans hate Japan and its people”?
I suspect that for every one Japan hater Chunks can find, I can find a person very interested in things Japanese.
Hell, if it were as bad as Chunks suggests, then where would all the Japanese who study abroad to the US go? All those homestays, too.
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Chunks,don’t mind.
Most Japanese hates Americans too.
Because you are razy bustard.
Haha.
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