Arab News Japan

TOKYO: In a survey commissioned by Japan’s Foreign Ministry, 84 percent of respondents in Middle Eastern countries said Japan’s economic and technical cooperation for the development of the Middle East was either “very beneficial” or “somewhat beneficial”.

The purpose of the opinion poll was to find out what impression Japan makes on certain countries. Seven countries were selected from the Middle East: Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. A similar poll was conducted in other regions, including the United States and selected countries in Europe.

The results largely mirrored those of the previous survey except in the area of Japan’s role in the stability of the international order, with only 69 percent of the respondents answering, “Japan plays a very important role” or “Japan plays a somewhat important role”. That was a drop of five percentage points from the previous survey.

Japan scored highly as a “peace-loving nation,” with 81 percent replying that they valued Japan’s path as a peace-loving nation.

The positive feelings of relations with Japan increased slightly from 76 to 78 percent of those surveyed seeing relations as “very friendly” or “somewhat friendly,” and 75 percent stating that Japan was “very reliable” or “somewhat reliable”.

In economic matters, Japan also scored highly. On Japan’s role in stabilization and growth of the world economy, 79 percent of the respondents answered, “a very important role” or “a somewhat important role”.

In the poll conducted in the United States, the respondents’ answers on defense seemed to conflict with the views of President Donald Trump. On the Japan-US Security Treaty, only 33 percent of the respondents answered that Japan should increase its self-defense capabilities, while 34 percent said the current levels should be maintained.

Japan ranked first on which country is the most important partner of the United States in Asia, but only 77 percent regarded Japan as a “reliable partner.”

In the survey of European countries (France, Germany, Hungary, Italy and the UK), only 60 percent viewed Japan’s role in the stability of international order as “very important” or “somewhat important”.

Similary, in 2019, Arab News Japan conducted a YouGov poll across 18 countries showed that Arabs have  a high regard for the Japanese and associate them with positive attributes such as hard-working (61 percent of respondents), organized (54 percent), punctual (42 percent) and polite (30 percent).  The poll showcased that knowledge of Japan across the Arab world varied from topic to topic, but the overall perception of Japan is positive and increases with age. 

Read more: Poll: 56% of Arabs want Japan as Middle East peace mediator