Views on Americans Aren’t High in the Land of the Rising Sun
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iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — Will the U.S. and Iran ever have the same close ties enjoyed by the U.S. and Japan?
It’s difficult to predict how things will play out but considering that the U.S. and Japan were once bitter foes involved in a world war, perhaps anything is possible.
Yet, Americans may not like what the Japanese actually think about them, based on a new Pew Research Survey, which asked people from both countries how they felt about their 70-year-old allies.
On the plus side, 75 percent of Japanese say they trust the U.S. a great deal or a fair amount while 68 percent of Americans feel the same way about Japan.
However, things start to rapidly go downhill from there. For instance, although a whopping 94 percent of Americans view the Japanese as hard-working, just one in four Japanese hold that same opinion about people in the U.S.
Things don’t get much better after that. Forty-seven percent of Japanese think Americans are selfish, compared to 19 percent of Americans believing the same of the Japanese.
How about honesty? Don’t ask. Only 37 percent of Japanese see Americans as honest but double that number of Americans regard the Japanese as honest.
In trying to make sense of all this, Ben Stokes with Pew Research maintains, “Stereotypes such as honesty or inventiveness or aggression, are emotions — not rational views backed by data. [But] these emotions matter. Such stereotypes help drive broader attitudes about policy.”
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