From the Roles of Government in 2006 Survey
April 2007
The NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute is a member of the International Social Survey Programme, or ISSP, an international comparative study group participated by 41 countries and regions. Every year, participating organizations conduct a joint survey using common questionnaires translated into their mother tongues. The 2006 theme was “Role of Government.” We surveyed on what people want for their governments. This article covers the results of the survey taken in Japan in November 2006.
To a question on how people are interested in politics, half of the respondents say they are “somewhat interested in politics,” far exceeding those who are “not interested in politics.” Most of the respondents watch news and other programs related to politics on TV in order to keep abreast of developments in politics, and the more interested in politics, the more they talk about politics with their friends and families.
When asked to rate Japanese government’s policies on six items including “healthcare,” “crime control,” and “protecting the environment,” the number of respondents who think the Japanese government has been “unsuccessful” surpassed the number of those who citing “successful” in all six areas. Among them, “crime control” received lowest marks, with half of the respondents citing “unsuccessful.” The result revealed that people are evaluating the government policies quite harshly and there are mounting anxieties about deteriorating security. To a question on whether politicians and bureaucrats are carrying out their duties, negative opinions accounted for 60%, suggesting there is deep-rooted distrust not only of government policies but also of people related to politics.
Comparing people’s attitude to politics by social stratum, those who think they belong to “lower class” are more discontent with society and tend to place more responsibility including “to narrow income gap” on the government than those who think they belong to “upper class.” However, those “lower class” people feel helpless against politics, which shows their dissatisfaction does not necessarily lead to their participation in politics.