According to the NHK public opinion survey for January, over 70% of respondents said they are “interested” in the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, up 5 percentage points from the poll conducted last August.

NHK conducted a nationwide survey over the three-day period of Jan. 11–13, 2020, on a computer-aided random digit dialing (RDD) basis and targeted men and women aged 18 or over with calls placed to landline and mobile phone numbers. Valid responses were received from 1,221 of the 2,216 people polled. The valid response rate was 55%.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in held a summit meeting last month for the first time in about 15 months. Some 17% of respondents said they think this will lead to an improvement in Japan-ROK relations while 67% said they do not think it will.

Asked for their outlook for the economy this year, 13% said it will “improve,” 23% said it will “deteriorate,” and 55% said it will “remain unchanged.”

As for their level of interest in the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, 31% said they have “great interest,” 42% said they have “some interest,” 16% said they have “not very much interest,” and 5% said they have “no interest at all.” The percentage of those saying they have “interest” (total of “great” or “some” interest) increased by 5 percentage points from the poll conducted in August last year.