Another day, another poll showing, wait for it, folk have no faith in politicians. The latest Asahi Shimbun poll (which entered into Our Man's consciousness thanks to James at Japan Soc here), found that a whopping great 91 percent of Japanese are mad as hell with politicians, Well actually, according to the left-leaning paper (left-leaning, though it was happy to shaft the unionised journalists it employs, but that's another story):
Around 90 percent say politicians have failed to present a future vision or reflect the people's wishes. Only 6 percent said they were "relatively satisfied" with the current state of politics. Just 1 percent said they were "greatly satisfied." Sixty percent said they were "greatly dissatisfied" and 31 percent were "relatively dissatisfied," according to the poll.
Asked what kind of future government they would want to see, 11 percent said a government formed around the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, while 15 percent said an administration formed around Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan), the main opposition party. Forty-six percent said they hoped to see a "new form of government created through a major reshuffle," and 19 percent said a "grand coalition bringing together LDP and Minshuto" would be desirable.
Oh, goody. So, that means Ozawa and the DPJ will storm into power come September, when Aso has to call an election... hold on a mo:
Asked what kind of future government they would want to see, 11 percent said a government formed around the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, while 15 percent said an administration formed around Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan), the main opposition party. Forty-six percent said they hoped to see a "new form of government created through a major reshuffle," and 19 percent said a "grand coalition bringing together LDP and Minshuto" would be desirable.
"Major reshuffle" and "grand coalition" are not quite the same as "Let's storm the Bastille" or "Death to the capitalist-imperialist pig-dogs", but it's pretty close. Would have been nice if the Asahi chaps had asked the good folk of Abiko: "Do you think it makes any difference since the bureaucrats make all the decisions anyway?" Wish Our Man had a ballot to spoil.
Oh, clip lifted from the excellently titled blog John Wayne's Holster, here. Nice to see the world hasn't moved on from 1976, eh readers?
5 comments:
Hate to say this. But without telling how many people were polled, the article seems useless. Maybe only 100 people were asked but it sounds like the whole nation is being voiced here.
Quite right. Click on the link and you'll get all the stat porn you could desire. It was a poll of 3,000 folk or so off the top of me head, don't know how scientific it was, probably not very, but is along the right lines in Our Man's humble opinion. Whether such emotions amount to a hill of beans, is open to debate.
Hi Abiko,
Japanese people are stupid( don't erase this please). It's true. Any poll conducted by asking random Japanese on the street is useless, because most don't know what they need or want. They scolded Koizumi cause because he was too controversial and went against both the LDP and the DPJ in many instances, even violating constitution countless times, yet he enjoyed some of the highest approval ratings in decades. And even still today Japanese are begging for his return.
Don't worry, Our Man doesn't believe in censoring comments. To be fair, all electorates are fickle.
and on the evidence,dumb,in the main.
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