世論 What Japan Thinks

According to a short article found on the Yomiuri Shimbun’s web site, they performed a face-to-face interview-based opinion poll in the middle of November to discover people’s attitude towards national politicians and politics. I wonder how much of the negative attitudes towards politicians was fired by the election of Taizo Sugimura and his all-too-honest youthful enthusiasm for the freebies awaiting him? Perhaps even the mostly positive image of Horiemon was soured by people realising that the whole business of Koizumi’s assassins was just too cynical a ploy?

The headline figure was that 69% felt there were too many Diet members, versus 24% who thought it was just about right, and 2% wanted more representitives.

Regarding respect for national politicians, 76% felt it had decreased from in the past, and 72% felt that the convictions (of the political, not the criminal, kind!) of the politicians had also decreased. When asked about their image of the current crop of Diet members, the top answer was “No convictions” at 38%, next being “Self-preservation” at 37%, “Acting in their own self interests” at 36%, then “Bias towards special interest groups or industries” and “Cannot understand popular sentiment” at 27% for each. All of the top ranked answers were negative images.

Only a third trusted politicians, whereas two-thirds did not, and with just 2% don’t knows, there are serious issues that the political machine needs to address to recapture the hearts of the person on the street.