世論 What Japan Thinks

With five candidates standing for leader of the Liberal Democratic Party in Japan, it should be quite a battle for…what am I saying, Taro Aso is a shoo-in. As to what policies he might enact, goo Ranking asked members of the goo Research monitor group what matters of policy they would like to see realised.

Demographics

Between the 25th and 28th of July 2008 1,072 members of the goo Research online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.3% of the sample were male, 5.7% in their teens, 14.4% in their twenties, 31,0% in their thirties, 28.1% in their forties, 10.5% in their fifties, and 10.4% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

I must say they are mostly reasonably sensible, but also very inward-looking. I’m surprised there wasn’t anything about North Korea, however, and disappointed but not surprised that taxing ciggies did not appear.

Ranking results

Q: What matters of policy would you like to see the new Prime Minister realise? (Sample size=1,072)

Rank		Score
1	Eliminate all waste of tax monies	100
2	Eliminate “amakudari”, cushy private or quango jobs for retiring officials	81.0
3	Eliminate fees for childbirth, pre-natal checks	50.8
4	Eliminate fees for education	49.2
5	Pensions for all over-65s	46.9
6	Review treatment of health care providers	45.9
7	Introduce mandatory retirement at age 60 for politicians	42.0
8	Support for agriculture, fishing	41.0
9	Introduce clean energy at public facilities	40.7
10	Natural disaster prevention, response	36.2
11	Increase parks, woodlands in cities	35.9
12	Privatise pension management, provision	35.2
13	Review compulsory education	35.0
14=	Eliminate all “service zangyo”, unpaid overtime	32.5
14=	Convert tax, other adminstrative procedures to online	32.5
14=	Set CO2 reduction targets	32.5
17	Introduce fines for non-payment of pension contributions	29.3
18	Introduce fines for failing to separate rubbish	27.0
19	Make high school education compulsory	25.6
20	Support freeters, NEETs	21.5