Current Japan-U.S. relations are considered to be "very good" or "good" by 48% of people in Japan, according to a recent poll jointly conducted by The Yomiuri Shimbun and U.S. polling firm Gallup.
The figure rose 9 percentage points from the previous poll conducted in 2018.
In the United States, 52% of respondents said the relations are "very good" or "good," varying little from the 50% last year.
The joint telephone poll on randomly selected people was conducted from Nov. 18 to 24 in the United States, with 1,001 people responding, and from Nov. 22 to 24 in Japan, with 1,024 people responding.
In 2018, 39% of respondents in Japan said that Japan-U.S. relations were "very good" or "good," drastically down from 56% in the 2017 poll, perhaps reflecting a wariness of U.S. President Donald Trump demanding the Japanese government to correct the U.S. trade deficit with Japan.
In October this year, the two nations signed a trade pact and U.S. pressure on Japan has since waned, which seems to have led to the view of better bilateral relations in the latest poll.
As for whether people think it would be good for Trump to be reelected next year, 76% of respondents in Japan said it would not be good. In the United States, 52% of respondents felt the same, while 45% said it would be good if he was reelected.
The percentage of people in Japan who disapproved of Trump's handling of relations with North Korea was 48%, up from 38% in the previous poll, with 40% of respondents giving approval, down from 49% in the previous poll. The figures likely reflected the current situation in which negotiations between the United States and North Korea have bogged down. In the United States, however, the approval rate was 50% and the disapproval rate was 47%, nearly unchanged from the 48% and 46% in the previous poll.
As for whether their respective government should more strictly regulate tech giants such as Google and Amazon.com that collect and use personal data, 64% of people in Japan and 73% in the United States. felt so. This likely reflects the global mainstream viewpoint, with these tech giants having been strictly regulated by the European Union.
In Japan, about 80% of people in their 30s-40s and about 70% in their 50s-60s said that the government should regulate tech companies' use of personal data more strictly. On the other hand, about 50% of people 18-29 and about 40% of those 70 and over thought so.
When asked whether they have confidence in tech giants such as Google and Amazon, only 36% of people in Japan and 42% of people in the United States said they do.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
