In the nationwide public opinion poll conducted by the Yomiuri Shimbun on April 20–22, some 45% of respondents said that they “welcome” the results of the Japan-U.S. summit between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump, while 42% thought otherwise. In the February 2017 poll conducted right after the two leaders met for their first summit, approval easily exceeded nonapproval, 66% to 26%. This time, however, pollees were split.

By age group, over half of respondents in the recent poll age 18 to 29 and in their 30s approved of the summit outcomes, while pollees disapproving exceeded those approving among pollees in the 40s and over age group.

At the recent summit, President Trump promised to raise the issue of the Japanese abductees at the U.S.-DPRK summit scheduled to be held by early June. Some 20% of respondents said that they think the issue will move toward resolution through this, while 73% thought otherwise.

Asked whether the international community should prioritize dialogue or pressure to convince North Korea to cease its nuclear tests and missile launches, voters were split with 46% saying “dialogue” (previous poll conducted on March 31–April 1: 46%) and 45% saying “pressure” (43%).

[Polling methodology: The nationwide survey was conducted on April 20–22 on a computer-aided random digit dialing (RDD) basis and targeted voters aged 18 or over with calls placed to landline and mobile phone numbers. Valid responses were received from a total of 1,066 persons, including 540 persons (out of the 873 households with one or more eligible voters) for landline numbers and 526 persons (out of the 1,112 persons who answered) for mobile numbers. The valid response rates were 62% for landline numbers and 47% for mobile numbers.]