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© (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016.Majority want Abe to stay on until Tokyo 2020 Olympics: poll
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toshiko
Japanese don't have much choice if Abe is gone. When Amie made him to tresign for his health problem every year PPM came and gone for six years.
bruinfan
@spiddygy
Chirp..chirp..chirp...We are still waiting...
toshiko
@Gary, Yubzfu Li ex in Japan many years. I have been arguing her more than ten years at Mt now. Don't guess how many yeas we lived in Japan.
ThePBot
Seems Mario has been handing out shrooms.
toshiko
Seems Japanese like situations under Abe.
misunderstood
@gokai_wo_maneku What do you mean US started wars!!! If NK start bombing the crap out of Japan you would be the first person to cry where is the US when we need them!! Now think about the American parents who will lose their sons for Japan on Japan soil!! If you think you can handle it yourself then go ahead, as soon as the US pool out Japan would be grabbing their ankles as if they don't do that already!!
Yubaru
@bullfighter...I often do not agree with what you post here, but your last post regarding your experience in teaching I give kudos to you for what you wrote.
I will probably still disagree with you on many points but, (while the world is not at an end) I agree with what you wrote.
Thank you.
gokai_wo_maneku
This will only last until their young sons start dying overseas in US started wars.
Fred Wallace
Name one country that does!
B.l. Sharma
Actual real truth is that a large majority of people want PM Abe to continue beyond 2020 in Japan and not till 2020 as alleged in this story.
bruinfan
@spiddygy
You said:
Could you list some of these? Thanks in advance.
lostrune2
Japan elect the government they deserve
bruinfan
I just hope they aren't lulled into a pointless death like during WWII. Now I am trying to see what will happen with the SDF possibly going to Somalia.
bullfighter
Rubbish. I teach sociology in Japan to Japanese university students. I have a pretty good idea of what is taught in general in my field (sociology of education). It is very comparative. So too for economics. The civics texts my kids use in middle also have quite a bit on other countries. Academic conferences in sociology, education, economics, etc. always have sessions with a comparative evidence.
Further, the government is always doing comparative studies. I myself have been involved in such studies comparing, for example, UK university management with Japanese university management. I would suggest that you look at government reports on issues such as ageing, welfare, labor policy, etc. You'll see that there is quite a bit of comparison.
I also teach some courses in Japanese history to Japanese students. I give them a survey that asks among other things why they are taking my course. One common answer is to get a different take on Japanese history.
DieRealityCheck
They learned enough. Hence 60%
Gary Raynor
GW
I bet they're still voting for Abe and think Japan is the greatest country since sliced bread.
Comparative analysis...as previously stated... not the strongest of Japanese cognitive points.
GW
Gary,
The above would be closest, I worked in a J-company, then on my own since 96 to present. So I have grown along with people who are in their late 40s to their 70s. And while those already retired etc are reasonably ok I know MANY in their 40s-60s who FEAR being forced to retire early or forced out with the company transfers & the like & many have kids & worry a great deal, at best they are ok, but losing ground over time & fear sudden changes in employment. Many in these age groups have & are finding out they DIDNT have a job for life.
While some in this age group have it better than young people, they also know they are being not so slowly being squeezed & pushed out etc, there is a LOT of stress out there, very few are content at present, if they are saying they are...............its mostly good ole tatemae, give them a couple glasses of shochu & hear the hone, not many are happy or content these days no matter what their ages sadly
TravelingSales
He's the best PM since Nakasone at least.
Yubaru
Done with this thread, sorry folks but cherry picked censorship of not threatening on topic posts really screws up the dialogue. Have at it!
Moderator: Japan Today doesn't practise censorship, so your comment is meaningless.
dcog9065
Well he's far better than Hillary or Trump so don't feel too bad here. I think the focus here now is to keep living standards consistent while massaging the eventual contraction smoothly
Rana Sodhi
People don't have any choice other than Abe.Do they?
Yubaru
You cherry pick a post to make a point....ok, guess what, reread my post about what's coming in the near future. You can find more information about it online as well.
However, there are plenty of parents that are seeing the need for a wider range in education, and are having their children learn many things that they themselves can not due. Hell I saw a 2nd grader in Primary school taking the eiken 2 kyu test and their mother cant speak a lick of English nor even wants to, but thinks their child needs English for their future. This 2nd grader also is in a TOEFL class as well, and she is not an exception really as there are plenty like her.
Point is the parents are the one's voting for the LDP, but are thinking of the future too. (Oh and why the eiken...until Japanese companies realize there is something better if their child is going to work here they need the certificate, to "prove" their so-called ability, hence the TOEFL too.)
sf2k
it's not like Japan has much of a functioning democracy anyway.
Illyas
Talk about fear-mongering.
J Chino
Well, the Japanese public have no other choices other than the arrogant benevolent Abe, and he knows it. Now he has another extra 4 years to carry out more of his political agenda. He is the probably the best of a bad bunch. Shoganai!!
Gary Raynor
YubaruAug. 30, 2016 - 11:50AM JST
Comparative analysis is not generally a Japanese strong point. They are not taught it at school and they are not trained in it at university.
As a result, ideas/actions that might seem mutually exclusive to us, can quite easily co-exist within the thinking/actions of many Japanese.
EyeOfTheCat
Well at least he's good as Super Mario, so nobody will get bored until 2020.
Yubaru
Maybe I should ask you the same? Folks who have been here a while (JT) know my "mores" and I am a naturalized Japanese citizen as well.
I dont live in a box either.
I happen to know that there are plenty that are working very hard to change the process that you are referring to here. Within the next 5 years or so there will be a huge change in how students are educated and hopefully it will be to the benefit of everyone that the next generation of Japanese are educated with the ability to critically look at the problems that face themselves and the country.
Japan IS for a fact falling behind the world, because of the current system of education, which directly correlates to group mentality, but it needs to change and hopefully will change, with more individualism Japanese style.
Interesting that many parents today vote one way it seems yet are raising their children differently.
Gary Raynor
GWAug. 30, 2016 - 11:01AM JST
It really does matter with which age group of Japanese that you interact. If you're a teacher, then I guess you interact with people under 40 and I would totally agree with you.
If you're not, and yourself is in the over 45 group, then I beg to differ. Those chest thumping Japanese of the 90s (I remember them well) are now in their mid 40s and older, and any Japanese who was in full time employment in the early 90s is still basically doing OK. They no longer are thumping their chests, but they still get their seniority streamed pay, which means they're earning Y6,000,000 plus salaries, and they think they have job security until retirement and will all likelihood be the last generation to get their state and company pensions.
Please don't get me wrong, I totally disagree with Abe and the LDP, and their economic policies which is maintaining the status quo on debt. A debt the under 40s will be paying for the rest of their life.
However Abe and his ilk are well aware that it is only, and I repeat again, only, when those needed economic and fiscal reforms are put into actuality, that the Japanese will turn against him and the LDP.
As a result, the LDP will resist as long as possible implementing those reforms and Kuroda and the BOJ has given them the opportunity to kick the reforms further and deeper down the road. This was always the failing of Abenomics and I, among a few others have always said this on this site. Implementing the third arrow would have been political suicide and arrow one was allowing the third arrow having not to be implemented, even though it made the future consequences for the Japanese a lot more serious.
Japanese vote on today's existence, not tomorrow's possibilities.
smithinjapan
Proof of the fact that they never learn... if you actually take approval rate to mean they want him to stay on.
nfijapan
60% is not exactly what you(d call an overwhelming majority. thats like saying, oh they only won buy two points, hardly overwhelming. Victory is a victory and the losers are well losers!
vlutalo
Really?
GW
60%....yikes, that's not depressing its utterly frightening !!!
I am almost 25yrs here now & I just don't see people being content at all, most are VERY worried about the future, completely different vibe to when I arrived beginning of the 90s when most were still walking around chest out thumping how great Japan is & how it will never lose ground, it was already obvious to me big changes were already starting & are in full swing now & people are for the most part VERY nervous about their futures, content.... I aint seeing much or any of that!
I would agree somewhat with that analogy, I have often said the locals wont go in for the NEEDED changes until its gets EXTREMELY BAD, ie your plane crash, sadly most don't seem up for really implementing ideas to try to turn the tide on many issues.......we continue the plunge that abe is making faster...... as I said frightening!!
papigiulio
EH? Name ONE thing!
MsDelicious
Well, if he would wear the Mario outfit everyday, I would support that.
Jumin Rhee
Strangerland: In a democracy it's an amazingly high number.
Exactly. Assad does poll around 99% approval ratings, but his is not exactly a democracy, for comparison purposes. ;)
DaDude
I don't sit and dwell on politics like a lot of you but I want the a prime minister that makes the highway tolls cheap again.
bullfighter
We would be in deep miso if his approval rating was higher. Communist dictatorships have near 100% approval ratings. Democracies are much lower. Currently Obama is in the 50% range. The range for postwar US presidents is 27% to 65%. Abe has been below 40%.
Whether these ratings mean anything is another question.
In parliamentary systems such as Japan and the UK, the important rating for the prime minister is his standing within his political party. That standing is influenced by public ratings but ultimately because the PM is selected by his or her party, it is standing within the party that really counts.
toshiko
Probably LDp will change its internal fule
Strangerland
In a democracy it's an amazingly high number.
Disillusioned
60% is not exactly what you(d call an overwhelming majority.
browny1
Realist -
When the topic of Abe comes up in discussions with locals (my locals) whether they be family, friends, students(Adults) etc, more often than not the responses range from smirks to laughter to criticism to strong dislike. I assume the silent ones approve or tolerate him or have no opinion. Except for 1 retired woman friend who has strong democratic-socialist ideas, no one disapproving of Abe remotely has "leftie" (as you put it) viewpoints - or they are kept hidden.
I was very surprised last week in a class of middle aged women who collectively (7 in all) made mockery of Mario-Abe and thought it was embarrassing and he was just pushing his own barrow so as to speak. I didn't even bring up the topic. They were unaminous in suggesting a Japanese sports star of International note should have played the role.
I know - only anecdotes, but I must move in different circles to you to get such an impression.
Also re Abe and the best pm in recent memory. Well that wouldn't be such a great challenge and or achievement!
We can only judge success in terms of what has been done. Many, many "non-lefties" - authorative, professional, lay and otherwise say in the 4 years since he has assumed power - None of his promises have been realized. In fact dire circumstances still exist as he fiddles, while espousing world peace, rights for women, and I-will-save-you-from-the-enemy ad nauseam. As others have noted, he remains in power because the populace doesn't demand much of their leaders, or if they do, they don't show it so often en masse. Abe's record would have seen him ousted in many other democracies - tried and failed - but here, also due to the lack of a strong opposition, he continues on his merry way.
For me the more accurate statistic showing his approval is by the % of people who actually voted for him. As many didn't vote for him and many abstained, I believe the figure to be in the 25% realm. ( I could be corrected). Hardly universal support for the "magnaminous" leader.
nath
62% support for any cabinet in any country is insane! Unfortunately very little of this support has to do with political policy. It has to do with feeling good about the olympics and the fact that there have been few scandals this time around.
Citizen2012
Exactly like I wrote, this is so pathetic but.... we are living in a society when being dressed like a video game character has more impact on your image than re-interpreting the holy sacred foundation of your own constitution.
In_japan
"Celebrity culture". Exploit it to get everything.
timtak
Gary Raynor's posts are good. There is cultural psychological research demonstrating that the Japanese "regulatory focus" is prevention of bad things rather than achievement of "success." This is probably in large part because, as Gary says, they are pretty content. Hamamura, T. (2008). Approach-avoidance motivation across cultures (Doctoral dissertation, University of British Columbia). https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0066470
spiddygy
Abe gets things done, and so far he is the only Prime Minister who has had a lot of positive things done so far. some people criticize just for the sake of it, or are just ranting for the sake of Ranting.
A Realist
Of course the lefties hate Abe with a passion, just as they hate any politician they deem to be "right-wing," but he is the best PM Japan has had in my memory, and I have a very long memory. He is the only one who has actually stood up for Japan, and the only one for over two decades who actually tried to fix the economy. I discern that the people who hate Abe the most are not Japanese, but foreigners living in Japan.
Jonathan Prin
Indeed, comment above just is just reminding me that Japanese and politics equal zero. If the question was : are you against Abe's policies, no true blooded Japanese can tell so to others ! Dictatorship always start by changing rule to duration of initial mandates...
Fred Wallace
Hence why clintons not reprimanded and trump got the nomination. I guess if you drink poison willingly, you deserve what's coming to you.
Gary Raynor
YubaruAug. 30, 2016 - 07:53AM JST
@Yubaru
I have to ask if you are living in Japan now because your opinion is so out of sync with the reality that is Japan 2016?
The majority of Japanese, while life could be better, are pretty content with their lot. They have income and jobs, they have a roof over their head, they have access to good medical services at reasonable prices, they have pretty safe crime free lives, their supermarkets are choc bloc with basic foodstuffs and public transport is a plenty and relatively cheap.
The above are the determiners of how Japanese decide the success or failure of a PM, not the abstract that the price being paid for 'the now' is a fiscal/economic nightmare down the road. A plane crash for the majority of the Japanese is when the plane hits the ground, not the 1000 mph hurtling to the ground.
You don't seem to understand that and as a result your posts sound like a belittling of the Japanese cognitive process. They're not stupid and they no more aspire to be ruled by a 'benevolent dictator' than you do, they're just OK today and that's all that matters.
BurakuminDes
Theres something farcical about seeing the least sporty-looking person dressed in Olympic training wear...
gaijinpapa
I know it was well received. I thought it was great. Just saying that whether it's movies or actions of politicians Japanese are abnormally influenced by overseas reaction.
But kudos to Abe. Being involved in that means he's able to keep pushing an agenda most Japanese don't think about.,
Aly Rustom
He screws them as well as their beloved Nippon and they want more of him?? The Japanese must be hands down the most masochistic people on the planet.
Yubaru
I know well the "concept" and Abe has been a master at blowing smoke up people's arses here. He has NOT kept the status quo, he has not stopped "failure", he has only created the image that he has. There is a difference.
People are taken in with the showmanship and have yet to ask about what's behind it all.
Ask any person on the street if they are better off than they were prior to Abe and you may well be surprised at the answers. Under Abe we have seen a raise in the consumption tax, falling wages, and increase in prices across the board, cluster-fruck after cluster-fruck, and Abe talking about issues that keep people's attention away from the problems of the economy, the SDF, the constitution, China, NK, South Korea, Russia, Rio, all in focusing on keep the attention away from the reality that his policies are not working domestically.
Even business is starting to complain about the public works funding, and the lack of thinking to the future. Abe cares about today, not tomorrow, and he is by current law unable to continue as PM, but polls like this will make him push harder for the simple majority power to amend the constitution and keep himself in power.
The birth of a "benevolent" dictator.
smartacus
gaijinpapa
From what I read, Abe's Super Mario appearance got a good reaction and was not seen as embarrassing around the world. It gave him some personality. I quite liked it, although I did see some criticism of his performance by online commentators in Japan.
gaijinpapa
People are just so simple minded. Image is everything . Hardly anyone things about Abe's real intentions.
If the media reported that Abe's stunt was seen as embarrassing by the world, everyone would be criticizing him now.
since1981
Sorry but I find it difficult to believe any political polls in Japan.
Alistair Carnell
He'll need more than a cosplay stunt, when body bags start returning from overseas SDF missions.
ThePBot
His Mario cosplay got him favorable views? It's either this poll was conducted by a shill or 60% of Japan is delusional/gullible.
Derek Grebe
Abe: Everything I promised has failed!
Japanese voters: Four more years!
DeDe Miura
I can't believe his Mario debut worked its magic...it's nauseating.
some14some
Favorable reports, No wonder J.media belongs to Mario-Abe-Momii !
Gary Raynor
Moonraker
YubaruAug. 30, 2016 - 07:10AM JST
You have to understand the Japanese concept of success and they you'll understand why Abe is still PM and why 60% of Japanese want him to remain.
The Japanese concept of success is not necessarily to succeed in overcoming something, but not failing/falling to something. Stopping failure now, is a success in itself. Maintaining the economic status quo, in itself, is a mark of success for most Japanese and Abe, up to now, has quite clearly kept the status quo for the majority of voting age Japanese.
That he has kept that status quo at the expense of Japan's future well being is an irrelevance to the majority of the Japanese. It's too abstract and although Japanese will pay lip service to the abstract, they deal with the reality of now.
Understand this and you'll understand the political leanings of the Japanese.
Yubaru
Abe knows how to play to the masses. His appeal comes from the image that he has created for himself.
The average person has been lulled into apathy with years of being "average."
sf2k
with the flood of public money being given away by Abe, will there even be a public purse left by then?
Moonraker
How depressing. The Japanese people never seem to tire of disappointment.