Japanese feel better about their economy than at any time in nearly two decades. But the overall mood in Japan remains wary, if not pessimistic. The prevailing view is that average people are worse off than before the Great Recession, while few think the next generation will fare any better. Automation is one reason the future may not be so bright for ordinary people: Majorities of Japanese say growing reliance on robots and computers will lead to joblessness and income inequality. And less than half the public is satisfied with the way democracy is working in Japan, while more than half hold the view that politicians do not care about ordinary people, that they are corrupt and that elections ultimately do not change much.

These are among the key findings from a Pew Research Center survey conducted May 24 to June 19, 2018, among 1,016 respondents in Japan.

Mixed economic sentiment

Positive views of the economy are up 34 percentage points since the early days of the global financial crisis in 2009. Nonetheless, in 2018 just 44% say the current economic situation in Japan is good, while 55% believe conditions are bad.

Four-in-ten Japanese (41%) think average people today are worse off financially than they were 20 years ago. Just 26% say they are better off. At the same time, only 15% of the public believes that children today in Japan will grow up to be better off financially than their parents, while 76% expect they will be worse off. That is among the lowest level of optimism about the next generation’s prospects among the 27 nations Pew Research Center surveyed in 2018.

Pessimism about the future may be tied in part to worries about automation. Nearly nine-in-ten members of the public (89%) believe that in the next half-century robots and computers will do much of the work currently done by humans.

And Japanese do not foresee that work environment as necessarily positive. More than eight-in-ten (83%) fear that such automation will lead to a worsening of inequality between the rich and poor, and more than seven-in-ten (74%) think ordinary people will have a hard time finding jobs.

But the fact is that without significant immigration there may be a deficit of people to employ. The nation’s population is aging and shrinking, the birth rate is projected to continue falling, and while immigration is on the rise, so is emigration. Japan’s population of 127 million is expected to shrink to 88 million by 2065.

Many Japanese would appear unsettled by the perceived balance between emigration and immigration. Roughly six-in-ten Japanese (58%) say that people leaving their country for jobs in other nations is a problem. At the same time, an identical share believes that the government should keep immigration at its current level. Only 23% think Japan should allow in more immigrants; 13% want fewer entrants from other nations.

Reluctance to increase immigration does not appear to reflect public animus toward immigrants. Japanese believe that immigrants want to adopt Japanese customs and way of life (75%). They think immigrants make the country stronger because of their work and talents (59%). And they do not fear that immigrants are responsible for an increased risk of terrorism (60%) or more crime (52%).

Views of Prime Minister Abe and Japanese democracy

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has now been in power since 2012 and is the third-longest-serving head of government in post-World War II Japanese history. He also served as prime minister for one year from 2006 to 2007, when he was the youngest prime minister to take office after WWII and the first to be born after it. He won re-election as head of the ruling, center-right Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in September 2018.

The Japanese public is divided in their view of the prime minister: 48% have confidence in him to do the right thing in world affairs, 50% lack such confidence. His support has fallen from a peak of 62% in 2015 and is now at its lowest since the Center first asked the question about Abe in 2007.

Not surprisingly, Abe’s strongest support (79%) comes from those who hold a favorable view of his party, the LDP. He also enjoys strong backing (69%) from followers of Komeito, a party with origins in a Buddhist sect and which is part of the current ruling coalition government. Abe’s weakest support (32%) comes from adherents of the center-left Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP). Men (54%) also favor Abe more than women (43%). And Japanese with more than a high school education (54%) are stronger backers of the prime minister than are those with a secondary education or less (45%).

The decline in Prime Minister Abe’s support comes at a time of public dissatisfaction with the state of Japanese democracy. Just four-in-ten of those surveyed (40%) are satisfied with the way their democracy is working today. Such positive sentiment is down from 50% in 2017. At the same time, a majority of Japanese (56%) are dissatisfied with their democracy, up 9 percentage points from 2017.

The public is particularly cynical about some aspects of their democracy. They believe that elections don’t change things (62%), that elected officials don’t care what ordinary people think (62%) and that most politicians are corrupt (53%).

Yet they praise their democracy for its protection of freedom of speech (62%) and the fairness of the courts (54%).

Views of the U.S. and China

Japanese views of the United States took a tumble in 2017 and their opinion of the American president fell precipitously. Both viewpoints recovered somewhat in 2017.

Two-thirds (67%) of the Japanese public holds a positive opinion about America, up 10 percentage points from 2017. This assessment of their longtime ally is roughly comparable to the median Japanese public opinion of the U.S. during the Obama administration.

But only three-in-ten Japanese express confidence in U.S. President Donald Trump’s handling of world affairs. This judgment is up 6 percentage points from that in 2017. But it is 45 points below the median level of Japanese confidence in his predecessor, Barack Obama, over his two terms in office.

Japanese also express a growing belief that the U.S. acts unilaterally (71%) when conducting American foreign policy, not taking into consideration Japan’s concerns. And 43% say America is doing less than it did a few years ago to address global problems.

Nevertheless, 64% believe that relations between Japan and the U.S. have stayed about the same over the past year. And, when asked whether they would prefer the U.S. or China to be the world’s leading power, eight-in-ten Japanese (81%) choose America. The Japanese public’s preference for U.S. leadership is stronger than it was in any of the other 25 nations surveyed by Pew Research Center in 2018.

Japanese views of their neighbor China have also improved somewhat over time, but from a very low base. Just 17% of the public holds a favorable impression of China, up 12 points from a low of 5% in 2013. Unfavorable opinion of Beijing has fallen 15 points since then, to 78%.

Such public animosity toward China is also seen in the finding that about three-quarters of Japanese (76%) lack confidence in China’s President Xi Jinping. And according to a 2017 Pew Research Center report, roughly two-thirds (64%) believed China’s power and influence was a major threat to Japan.

The Japanese economy has been anemic for years, with a 1.7% annual real growth rate in 2017 and 1.1% projected real gross domestic product growth in 2018, according to the International Monetary Fund. And less than half the public is pleased with the direction of the country and the economy.

Nonetheless, Japanese are more satisfied with the way things are going in their country today (44%) and they feel better about the nation’s current economic situation (44%) than in 2002, when just 6% thought the economy was doing well and only 12% were content with the direction of the country.

However, this uptick in public satisfaction masks some nostalgia for the past and does not translate into hope for the future. About a quarter (26%) of Japanese believe that the financial situation of average people is better today than it was two decades ago. And only 15% of the public thinks today’s children will be better off financially than their parents, a pessimism that has not changed significantly in the last five years, despite improvement in the public mood about the economy.

There is disagreement between men and women on conditions in Japan today. Roughly half of Japanese men (49%) are satisfied with the direction of the nation, while 40% of Japanese women agree. More than half of men (52%) say the economy is good, but just 35% of women concur. While 30% of Japanese men assert that the financial situation of average people is better today than it was 20 years ago, only 22% of women agree. Notably, both men and women overwhelmingly believe that children today will be worse off financially than their parents.

Views of the economy are also divided along party lines. Among those with a favorable view of Prime Minister Abe’s party, LDP, 62% voice a positive view of the economy. By comparison, just 34% of backers of the opposition CDP say the economy is doing well.

Japan is the fourth largest trading nation in the world, measured by imports and exports of merchandise. It runs a 4% trade surplus (as a percent of gross domestic product). And trade accounts for 17.1% of the country’s GDP, according to the World Trade Organization. The Japanese public seems to recognize the importance of the global market to their economy: 72% believe that growing trade and business ties with other nations are good for Japan. But Japanese are not so sure average people are benefiting directly from international commerce. Only about one-in-five (21%) believe that trade creates jobs or lowers prices, and roughly one-in-seven (15%) say trade leads to higher wages.

Men are more likely than women to hold the view that trade is good for the country (78% vs. 66%, respectively). People ages 18 to 29 are nearly twice as likely as those 50 and older to believe trade lowers prices. And Japanese with a higher level of education ¹ or who have an income higher than the median are more likely than less educated people or those with lower incomes to think that trade creates jobs.

Japan is not only a leader in world trade. It is also among the leaders in automation. Japan has 303 installed industrial robots per 10,000 workers in the manufacturing industry, making it the fourth largest user of such robots in the world, according to a 2018 report by the International Federation of Robotics. And more automation may be coming: The average hourly cost of a manufacturing worker in Japan is about seven times the hourly cost of a robot, according to a study by Bain & Company.

The Japanese public is quite aware of these technological developments in the workplace and is generally wary of them.

Nine-in-ten Japanese adults (89%) think that in the next half-century robots and computers will be doing much of the work currently done by humans. Japanese are much more likely to believe this about the future work world than Americans (65%). And 74% say the Japanese economy will be more efficient as a result, the largest share of the public to hold such views in a 2018 nine-country Pew Research Center survey on the topic.

For the most part, Japanese see more problems than benefits created by automation. More than eight-in-ten (83%) say inequality will get worse as robots do more human work. Roughly three-quarters of the public (74%) believe ordinary people will have trouble finding jobs in this new economy. And a majority (58%) do not believe automation will generate new, better-paying employment.

Young Japanese ages 18 to 29 are about three times as likely as those 50 and older to believe that in a half-century robots and computers will definitely do much of the work currently done by humans (52% vs. 17%, respectively). Younger adults are also significantly more likely than older adults to hold the view that automation will lead to new, higher-paying employment (52% vs. 31%, respectively).

Whatever their education level, more than half of Japanese do not think it is likely that automation will lead to more job opportunities. But those with a secondary education or less are particularly skeptical (61%).

When asked who should be responsible for making sure that the Japanese workforce has the right skills and education to be successful in the future, a large majority of Japanese (63%) believe the government has a lot of that responsibility. Roughly four-in-ten (42%) say employers should bear much of the responsibility, 39% believe it should be individuals themselves and 37% say it should be schools.

Notably, those with a postsecondary education or higher are more likely than those with only a secondary education or less (45% vs. 35%, respectively) to voice the view that individuals bear a lot of responsibility in preparing themselves for employment in the new world of work.

In the past decade and a half, while satisfaction with the economy has increased, public approval of Japanese democracy has declined, with many Japanese of the opinion that it is characterized by corruption and inattentiveness and that elections are ineffective.

Four-in-ten Japanese are satisfied with the way democracy is working in their country. Such sentiment is down 10 percentage points since 2017. Men (47%) are significantly more satisfied than women (34%). Not surprisingly, those who have a favorable view of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (63%) are pleased with the current state of Japanese democracy. Those who view the Komeito party favorably (57%) are also quite content. But only 48% of Party of Hope backers, 42% of Democratic Party adherents and 28% of CDP supporters give Japanese democracy a positive rating.

When it comes to specific aspects of their country’s governance, Japanese are disparaging of many ways in which their democracy works, yet they are fairly positive about the society they live in.

A majority (62%) expresses the view that no matter who wins an election, things do not change very much. Roughly half (53%) believe most politicians are corrupt. And only around a third (35%) say elected officials care what ordinary people think. Young Japanese (66%) are more likely than those ages 50 and older (50%) – and women (57%) more likely than men (48%) – to say politicians are corrupt. Notably, more than half of those who favor the ruling LDP (53%) believe that elected officials care what ordinary people think. Fewer than half of LDP backers (45%) say politicians are corrupt. But 60% of them say elections do not change very much. Among those who view the CDP positively, 55% believe most politicians are corrupt, 63% think things do not change very much no matter who wins an election and 59% say elected officials do not care what ordinary people think.

But the public also credits Japanese governance with producing a free, just and safe society. Seven-in-ten believe most people live in safe neighborhoods. About six-in-ten (62%) think freedom of speech – the right of people to express their views in public – is protected. More than half (54%) believe that the Japanese court system treats everyone fairly. And roughly half (53%) say most people have a good chance to improve their standard of living in Japan.

Men (66%) are more likely than women (57%) to believe that there is freedom of speech in Japan. There is also a gender gap on the question of whether Japanese society affords people the opportunity to improve their standard of living: 58% of men hold that view, compared with 48% of women.

With a population that is both aging and shrinking, Japan’s economic prospects depend heavily on its demographic future. The nation’s population of roughly 127 million is expected to contract by about 30% by 2065, when 38% of Japanese will be ages 65 and older. With the average Japanese woman having fewer than two babies, thus ensuring that the next generation of native-born Japanese will be smaller than the current generation, migration is an important demographic issue.

Notably, the Japanese public is more concerned about emigration – how many people choose to leave Japan – than immigration, or how many enter the country.

Roughly six-in-ten believe that people leaving Japan for jobs in other countries is a problem, with about half of them (30% of the public) saying it is a very big problem. Conversely, 39% do not think Japanese seeking work abroad is a problem, with about one-in-five saying it is not a problem at all. These opinions reflect a near-complete reversal from attitudes on the same question in 2002.

Older Japanese, those ages 50 and older, are more likely to say emigration for work is a problem (64%) though half of younger Japanese (18- to 29-year-olds) share this sentiment.

In 2015 the number of migrants in Japan totaled just over 2 million people, or less than 2% of the population. At the same time, 1.3 million Japanese nationals are currently living abroad, according to the government’s statistical bureau. Both immigration and emigration are on the rise, with immigration growing faster. But the net addition to the Japanese population is less than 1% in recent years.

While the public tends to view emigration as a problem, most are comfortable with recent immigration trends. When asked whether Japan should accept more, fewer or about the same number of immigrants, only 23% believe the Japanese government should allow more immigrants to move to their country. A majority (58%) voices the opinion that immigration numbers should stay about the same as they are now, while 13% think fewer immigrants should be allowed to move to their country.

These opinions hold true regardless of age or gender; Japanese with higher incomes are more in favor of increasing immigration than those with lower incomes, though majorities of both groups want about the same number of immigrants to be allowed into Japan.

Most Japanese believe immigrants want to assimilate, but opinions are more mixed when it comes to immigration’s effects on society.

Three-quarters of the Japanese public believes immigrants currently in their country want to adopt Japanese customs rather than remain distinct from the rest of society. A majority also believes that immigrants make Japan stronger through hard work and the talents they possess. Only about a third see immigrants as a burden who take jobs or rely on social benefits.

When asked if immigrants’ presence in Japan affects the risk of future terrorist attacks, six-in-ten Japanese say they believe immigrants do not increase this threat. However, a third of the public (33%) does think more immigration increases the risk of terrorism in Japan. Younger Japanese (43%) are more likely than those ages 50 and older (28%) to say immigrants increase the chances of terror incidents occurring in their country.

Regarding crime, about half (52%) say immigrants are no more to blame for crime than other groups in Japan. But four-in-ten claim that migrants are indeed more at fault for lawbreaking throughout Japan.

Japan’s image is quite favorable in most Asian-Pacific nations surveyed and the United States. About eight-in-ten in the Philippines and Australia report having a positive view of Japan. Roughly two-thirds of Americans and Indonesians also give Japan a favorable rating, and have since 2005.

The exception to this pattern is South Korea, which was long a colony of Japan. Only 35% of South Koreans have a positive view of Japan, while 63% report an unfavorable opinion. South Koreans ages 50 and older – those who may have personally experienced Japanese occupation within their families – are particularly critical of Japan, with only 28% giving a favorable opinion of their Asian neighbor. This compares with 47% of South Koreans ages 18 to 29 who hold a positive view. Still, South Korean views of Japan have actually improved by 13 percentage points in recent years, from 22% favorable in 2013 up to 35% today.

Older Australians (79%) are also slightly less positive toward Japan than younger Australians (87%), but they still overwhelmingly give a favorable assessment. In the U.S., Australia and Indonesia, those with incomes above the national median express more positive views of Japan.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe receives relatively positive marks in the countries surveyed. About seven-in-ten in the Philippines and Australia say they have confidence in the Japanese leader to do the right thing when it comes to world affairs. More than half of the American public shares this view. In Indonesia about half have confidence in Abe while 19% do not; however, 34% offer no opinion. South Koreans again give the most negative judgment – 88% say they do not have confidence in Abe.

Japanese views of China still overwhelmingly negative

Japan and China share a complicated history that has resulted in immensely negative perceptions across the East China Sea. In 2018, 78% of Japanese have an unfavorable view of China, by far the most negative response across all countries surveyed. Just 17% have a favorable opinion of China. Yet this represents a slight lessening of enmity since 2013, when 93% of the Japanese public expressed disapproval and only 5% had a positive outlook. Still, this year’s marks are much different than when the question was first asked in 2002, at which point a majority of Japanese (55%) had a favorable view of China.

Feelings toward China are strongly negative in Japan regardless of age, income, education level or gender. Those with a favorable view of Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party or Komeito, a political party with Buddhist roots, tend to have a more positive outlook about China.

Although disapproval permeates several aspects of Japan’s views of China, Japanese still acknowledge that the country is becoming more influential worldwide.

On four different measures, the Japanese public’s views of China are consistently negative. Nearly nine-in-ten assert the Chinese government does not respect the personal freedoms of its people. Three-quarters or more express a lack of confidence in Chinese President Xi Jinping, unfavorable views of China and the sentiment that global U.S. leadership would be better for the world than Chinese leadership.

Nonetheless, roughly eight-in-ten Japanese concede that China plays a more important role in the world today compared with 10 years ago. Japanese with higher incomes and education levels are more likely to agree. Those with favorable views of the liberal opposition Constitutional Democratic Party are more likely to believe China’s role is growing than those who have an unfavorable view of the party.

The United States and Japan have been security allies since 1951. America has provided Japan with a nuclear umbrella, safeguarding it against Russia, China and now North Korea. Japan has afforded U.S. military forces forward bases in Asia.

Since 2002, in all but one year (2008), a majority of Japanese have held a favorable view of the U.S. In 2018, two-thirds (67%) see the U.S. positively, up 10 percentage points from 2017. Such support for America is lower than its peak (85%) in 2011, in the wake of U.S. aid to Japan in the aftermath of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. But it is comparable to that in several years of the Obama administration. Japanese hold far more positive views of America than do many other U.S. allies, including Australians (54%), the British (50%), French (38%) and Germans (30%). But the Japanese public has less esteem for America than do Filipinos (83%) and South Koreans (80%).

Japanese men and young people express more favorable sentiment toward America than women and older Japanese, as do people with more than a high school education. Approval of the U.S. is broadly shared across adherents of the major political parties in Japan, with the strongest backing from those who have a favorable view of the LDP and Komeito.

Confidence in the U.S. president to do the right thing regarding world affairs tends to parallel views of the U.S. in many countries, including Japan. Just three-in-ten Japanese express faith in President Donald Trump, up 6 percentage points from 2017. While this is an improvement, this is still the third-lowest confidence in an American leader in 13 years in Japan. Japanese faith in Trump is lower than that in the Philippines (78%) and South Korea (44%) and comparable to that in Australia (32%) and the United Kingdom (28%). Japanese confidence in the president is higher than that in Germany (10%) or France (9%).

Japanese men (36%) have significantly more faith in Trump than do women (23%). Support for the U.S. leader is lowest among CDP backers (28%).

Relative to their view of some other prominent world leaders, Japanese adults have a decidedly more negative opinion of Trump. About two-thirds (65%) of Japanese express confidence in German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s handling of world affairs. Roughly half have faith in French President Emmanuel Macron (51%) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (48%), though both leaders have notably high “don’t know” responses at 25% and 32%, respectively. Japanese views of the U.S. president are roughly comparable to those of Russian President Vladimir Putin (26%) and much better than the public’s judgment of Chinese President Xi Jinping (17%).

The uptick in Japanese confidence in Trump and favorability of the U.S. comes in the wake of the Trump administration’s focus on curtailing North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, which nearly two-thirds of Japanese were very concerned about in 2017.

The Japanese perspective on the U.S. role in the world

For most of the past decade, Japanese have seen the U.S. as the world’s leading economic power. Today, a majority (58%) express such a view, a much larger share of the public than sees China (29%), the countries of the European Union (5%) or even Japan itself (4%) in that role. But the public’s assessment of China’s economic power is up 10 percentage points since 2017 and is now at its highest level since 2012.

The advent of the Trump administration does not seem to have markedly affected Japanese views on U.S.-Japan relations. In 2017, a plurality of Japanese (41%) expected relations with the U.S. to get worse in the wake of Trump becoming the American president. But in 2018, only 19% say relations have gotten worse. Nearly two-thirds (64%) believe things have stayed about the same.

What has suffered in recent years in the eyes of many Japanese are certain aspects of U.S. soft power.

Two-thirds of Japanese say the U.S. government respects the personal freedoms of its own people. This is a much more positive judgment than the Japanese assessment of China’s record on civil liberties. But Japanese views on U.S. protection of Americans’ civil rights is down 19 points from its peak in 2013. The decline began around 2014. Men (73%) more than women (60%) see the U.S. as respectful of Americans’ personal freedoms.

The Japanese public has long believed that the U.S. acts unilaterally in world affairs. In 2018 such sentiment has strengthened: 71% believe Washington does not consider their interests when conducting U.S. foreign policy, up 12 percentage points since 2013. Japanese views are roughly comparable to views about U.S. unilateralism in the UK (72%) and Australia (68%). But such criticism in Japan is less than that expressed in France (81%), Germany (80%) and South Korea (75%). The Japanese are, however, much more judgmental than the Filipinos (23%).

A plurality of Japanese (43%) also voice the view that the U.S. is doing less to address global problems than it did a few years ago. Such views of American engagement in dealing with shared world challenges differ greatly depending on expressed confidence in President Trump. Among those Japanese who lack confidence in Trump, 50% say the U.S. is doing less to help address major global problems. Among those who voice confidence in the president, just 30% judge the U.S. as doing less. While 37% of supporters of the ruling LDP believe America is doing less in the global arena, 47% of those who back the opposition CDP hold that view.

Japanese views of U.S. efforts on world challenges is roughly comparable to the views of Australians, 46% of whom say Washington is doing less. Japanese are more critical than South Koreans (37%) and Filipinos (18%). They are less likely to disapprove than Germans (75%), the British (55%) and the French (53%).

Despite souring attitudes, the Japanese public is very clear about its choice for the world’s leading power: the U.S.

When offered the choice of whether they would fancy the U.S. or China to lead the world, 81% of Japanese choose America. Such Japanese support is stronger than in the Philippines (77%), South Korea (73%), Australia (72%), the UK (67%), France (65%) or Germany (58%).

This report is a collaborative effort based on the input and analysis of the following individuals.

Bruce Stokes, Director, Global Economic Attitudes            Kat Devlin, Research Associate

James Bell, Vice President, Global Strategy Alexandra Castillo, Research Associate Stefan Cornibert, Communications Manager     Claudia Deane, Vice President, Research     Moira Fagan, Research Assistant Janell Fetterolf, Research Associate Christine Huang, Research Assistant Courtney Johnson, Research Associate Michael Keegan, Information Graphics Designer David Kent, Copy Editor Clark Letterman, Senior Researcher Martha McRoy, Research Methodologist Patrick Moynihan, Associate Director, International Research Methods Jacob Poushter, Senior Researcher Audrey Powers, Senior Operations Associate Ariana Rodriguez-Gitler, Digital Producer Laura Silver, Senior Researcher                                Christine Tamir, Research Assistant Kyle Taylor, Research Analyst Richard Wike, Director, Global Attitudes Research

About the Pew Research Center’s Spring 2018 Global Attitudes Survey

Results for the survey are based on telephone and face-to-face interviews conducted under the direction of Kantar Public Korea and Langer Research Associates. The results are based on national samples, unless otherwise noted. More details about our international survey methodology and country-specific sample designs are available here.

Detailed information on survey methods for this report

General information on international survey research