BBC Global Poll: Japan Has Most Positive Influence in the World

[Bonobo]

http://www.japanprobe.com/2012/05/16/bbc-global-poll-japan-has-most-positive-influence-in-the-world/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+JapanProbe+%28Japan+Probe%29





Japan is seen as having the most　positive influence in the world　among all countries evaluated, and　views have improved slightly since 2011. On average, in the 21 tracking countries surveyed, 58 per cent of respondents hold positive views of Japan’s influence (up from 56% in 2011), and 21 per cent hold negative views (up 1 point from 2011). This very favourable global picture is reflected in the picture by country: out of the 22 countries surveyed in 2012, 20 countries lean positive and only two lean negative (South Korea and China).

[grasswire]

1. I find that just stunning.

The two main aggressors in WW2, at the top in favor.

The Chinese view of Japan is interesting, and probably harkens back to Nanking.

[Bonobo]

2. WW2 ended almost 70 years ago. It is not in anyone's memory any longer.

You might as well claim that the USA is viewed negatively because of slavery.

What has happened in the last 70 years?

Japan has a 2000 year history and, within that long history, WW2 just isn't the most important thing.

For example, the US dropped nukes on Japan and you will find no one in Japan angry over that.

I was waiting for 3 predictable responses to this OP.

1. WW2
2. Whales
3. Fukushima

[grasswire]

4. apparently the Chinese remember the Japanese Imperial Army

And do you really think that no one views the U.S. negatively because of slavery? I'd like to see a poll on that.

[Bonobo]

5. Not really. The Chinese are subjected to a constant barrage of anti-Japanese media from the State

The Chinese Government does it as a way to create a popular enemy for their own purposes.

Should be a familiar tactic to Americans.

[Selatius]

9. The Japanese don't really help in the matter. They've dragged their feet on recognizing their crimes

The history textbooks in Japan for the longest time tended to whitewash or give a minimalist account of what the Japanese Army did during the occupation of China. Only in recent years have they started changing their tune under international pressure.

[grasswire]

10. Nor has the U.S. really allowed appropriate memory of JIA war crimes.

After WW2, the efforts to rightfully prosecute war crimes soon took second place to the need to form a partnership with Japan in the rising Cold War.

[Selatius]

11. We were interested in their research into biological weapons.

Yes, we knew they were using biochemical weapons to some degree on the Chinese and were even running despicable medical experiments on prisoners of war, but at the end of the war, the logic of the time was either us or the reds, and our government at the time would rather that knowledge go into American hands. Of course commuting sentences of some number of war criminals was one of the items used to get cooperation from some of the high level officers, scientists, and other personnel involved with things like Unit 731. It was considered better that we get that information than the Red Army and Stalin. Stalin was busy shipping troops and tanks over to the far east after the defeat of Germany and had declared war on Japan in the final weeks of fighting.

[Shankapotomus]

3. I don't

It makes sense. The defeated in war - and i mean this in a good way and with complete sensitivity to their suffering - are forced to take stock in themselves and improve. It just goes to show you what nations can become when the avenues of war and conquest are taken away from them. The losers become the winners.

[bobdem62594bs]

6. Same here. Interesting poll.

[grasswire]

7. the BBC has a different headline than the Japan forum does.

It reflects the diminishing influence of the EU.

[cthulu2016]

15. They were demilitarized as the losers

so they have been pretty much the least aggressive nations for generations

[Selatius]

8. This might be because neither Japan nor Germany have global military supremacy as their goal.

And I can't help but think the reason why China's favorability rating is higher than that of the United States is that the military dictatorship running China doesn't have the capability to project military power on the same scale as the United States.

If they had a fleet of 12 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers that can go anywhere, hundreds of warships, a fleet of attack drones, stealth weapons, satellite guided weaponry, long-range heavy bombers capable of carrying full nuclear payloads, dozens of black sites around the world convenient for the torture of prisoners, the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons outside Russia, hundreds of ballistic missiles that could hit any city in the world, and over 700 military garrisons stationed around the world, China's favorability rating would be lower than that of the US.

[cthulu2016]

12. The likely reason for this result is interesting...

Coming out of WWII Japan accepted becoming a demilitarized state. Later, when she could have developed a strong military she realized that the US offered security without her having to pay for it. It's a deal everyone is happy with. (One problem with a nuclear NK is that Japan would feel obliged to militarize and Japan can have the world's third or fourth largest nuclear arsenal in a decade. They don't want that. We don't want that.)

Anyway, Japan does a kind of non-military defense spending. She keeps herself popular by being the top giver of foreign assistance in the world, widely disseminated, year after year. Kind of international "protection" money. Nobody hates Japan these days except NK.

It fascinates me... the defense benefits of being nice. (And an island...)

[grasswire]

13. well, there are still a handful of people who hate Japan for WW2.

But they are leaving this world. My uncle, who was a prisoner of the Japanese for 3 and 1/2 years after the fall of Corregidor, asked us to never forget what happened. I don't hate the Japanese, but I am obligated to understand my uncle's sacrifices and to remember.

Judging by the number of books out there on the war in the Pacific, there's still a good amount of interest.

[cthulu2016]

14. Yes, the median age on Earth is 24

Outside of the WWII generation the average person has never seen Japan do anything bad. I'm well into middle age but I grew up seeing Japan and WWII Japan as almost two different countries, since Japan has been our greatest ally in Asia for as long as I've bee alive. Meanwhile, our WWII ally Russia was our top enemy every day.

67 years is a long time.