The recent public opinion survey jointly conducted by The Yomiuri Shimbun and the U.S. survey firm Gallup found that an increasing percentage of both Japanese and Americans do not think that their national governments are actively addressing global warming.

A total of 63% of respondents in Japan said they “don’t think” or “generally don’t think” their government is taking adequate measures, up 15 percentage points from the 2008 poll where 48% responded that way to the same question. Meanwhile, 30% of Japanese pollees said that the government is being active in its countermeasures (2008 poll: 47%). Similarly, 58% of U.S. pollees said that their government is taking inadequate measures (47%), while 39% said the government is being active in its response (50%). This represents a reversal in the percentages this year from the poll conducted in 2008. The poll findings in Japan are thought to be impacted by the fact that coal-fired power plants, which produce high volumes of greenhouse gases, have not been closed as the majority of nuclear power plants have not been restarted after the Great East Japan Earthquake. The U.S. findings are thought to be influenced by the Trump administration’s passive stance on global warming countermeasures.

Japanese trust the SDF, Americans trust the armed forces

Asked which of their country’s organizations and public institutions they trust (multiple answers permitted), 78% of Japanese selected the “Self-Defense Forces (SDF),” making it the most frequently given response for the ninth consecutive poll. This was followed by “hospitals” and “courts” at 67% each. Next were “newspapers” and “police and prosecutors” at 55% each.

Among U.S. pollees, the most frequently given response was the “armed forces” at 86%. This was followed by “hospitals” at 78%, “police and prosecutors” at 67%, churches at 65%, and “schools” at 60%.

[Polling methodology: The survey, both in Japan and the United States, was conducted nationwide over the telephone on a computer-aided random digit dialing (RDD) basis, with people selected from the two countries’ respective voting populations. In both countries, the survey was carried out over landline telephones and mobile phones.

Japan

Survey conducted: Nov. 22–24

No. of valid respondents: 1,024 persons (men, 48%; women, 52%)

U.S.

Survey conducted: Nov. 18–24

Survey outsourced to The Gallup Organization

No. of valid respondents: 1,001 persons (men, 50%; women, 50%)]