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Poll: Japan Has Most Positive Influence In World

A poll conducted for BBC World Service has found that 56% of 17,000 people interviewed in 24 countries thought that Japan had a positive influence on the world. Here is a graph showing Germany and Japan as the top countries in the survey results:

The Yomiuri Shinbun has offered more details on how certain countries viewed Japan:

Concerning each country’s views on Japan, positive views are the most predominant in Kenya, where 78 percent said Japan had a positive influence, followed by Israel at 75 percent and Indonesia at 74 percent.

In four countries, including Australia, Britain and the United States, positive views of Japan were held by about 70 percent of all respondents. Negative views of Japan were predominant mainly in China and South Korea with 55 percent of Chinese and 52 percent of South Koreans saying Japan has a negative influence.

Meanwhile, 36 percent of Japanese respondents said the country had a positive influence and 15 percent viewed it as having a negative influence.

23 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - April 2, 2008 at 12:40 pm

Categories: General Japan Tags: bbc, germany, japan, japanese, Korea, news

annie

China is above the US ? The world must really hate us.

tom

Visit anywhere outside developed nations and you’ll find that the Chinese have pumped a lot of investment into the world, which many are thankful for. Of course, there are a number of good trade reasons and between-the-line agreenments on the Chinese side but in contrast with the USA, who are known for inciting coups and assassinations (in some cases just anti-USA propaganda), it’s not a surprising result.

D-San

weird. I don’t really see what this was for? Doing things to help the world or just having a positively viewed society?
ashredrum

Germany’s never done anything for me….
Bad Wolf

Only a very scientific study could place North Korea right after the US of A. That’s obviously.
the overthinker

So nearly a quarter of the world thinks North Korea is a POSITIVE influence on the world? Wow….

Klauscore

maybe a large part of the survey was conducted in N.Korea.
Otherwise, that is in fact really hard to explain.

http://l-lawliet.nutang.com l-lawliet

It’s an irony to see the two country that caused the most harm during WW2 getting the top two places.
http://hobbyjapan.blogspot.com/ Timotei

Still, the ww2 is in the past now. Sure, it’s still pretty weird to see Germany up there and even more that N.korea is so far up.

I actually thought US would be further up. Maybe people will change their mind when the new president (Obama, come on) will rule (most) of the country.
http://kdn wow

who did they poll??? What 24 countries??? What about the UN human rights and anti-racist charters that japan breaks on a daily basis????? What about the whaling thing???? What about all that stuff happening in tibet???? What about russia wanting to leave the nuke treaties behind??? Why does the u.s. have the smallest percentage of “don’t know”???

I’m soo confused!!

http://www.japaneconomynews.com/ Ken

Somewhat agreed. Japan has to rank as least as low as the US. Japan cannot stand up to dictators or assert any real power internationally. Then again, this might appease some people who would like to see Japan stay isolated on its own islands. When they call Japan a positive force, they probably think, “Good cars, TVs and radios, and they have been emasculated by the US, so they can’t hurt us…lack of threat is a positive force.”

But, what has Japan really contributed to international politics or relations in the past ten years (aside from that ad in the Washington Post)?

Scramble for the answer…

helical

It depends on what you consider positive.
For example, North Korea is acting as sort of a buffer zone against Communist China for South Korea, and it gives countries in the region excuses for military spending like missile defense systems without outright provoking the other major players. Or, sure China breaks a lot of human rights and faces inside their borders, but they sure make cheap Happy Meal toys!

Taking into account the tendency for people to value their immediate life and environment more so than world affairs, it may be natural that the countries known for high-quality and/or cheap products are among the highest rated.
IamCDN

Wow I cant believe that canada is not on that poll, nobody loves us.

and LOL at the americans!
404error

yeah germany takes the lead^^ surely do the the worlcup 06^^

you are all welocme in germany to drink a beer or more^^
SlyTheSly

Influence is culture, medias, sport, diplomacy, war, peace, language, etc, etc.
In France the Japanese culture is very popular though anime and mangas mainly, but also cinema and music a little. So some people won’t think more : they’ll answer that they like Japan and think it has a good influence, a positive one.
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Canadaguy

Notably missing: Canada!
TT

What are we talking about here? STUFF, right? Just THINGS we can buy, GOODS we can own –

nothing to do with Culture, Language, or Art or those kinds of things, we’re talking about

CARS, TVs, DVD Players, CAMERAS, TOYs, VIDEO GAMES,

that sort of stuff, right? The Tech Stuff?

How pathetic. What the hell kind of poll is this anyways?

Buster

If it was Tech Stuff how come North Korea received 25?

http://gabuchan.wordpress.com gabuchan

Why wasn’t Canada on this list?

Greg

Cause it’s already given that we have the most positive influence in the world and everyone likes us.

This poll was intended to get people’s opinions about past and present troublemakers.
http://kdn wow

no one cares about america Jr.

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Poll: Japan Has Most Positive Influence In World

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