Is Japan on the decline? 70% say country’s stature waning: survey

A growing majority of Japanese believe their country is on a downward trajectory – a dramatic rise from less than a decade ago – as concerns mount over economic stagnation, political alienation and the social consequences of immigration, a global survey has found.

Seventy per cent of Japanese respondents agreed with the statement that Japan is “in decline”, according to the latest survey by polling firm Ipsos – up 30 percentage points from a similar poll in 2016 and one of the steepest increases among the 31 countries surveyed.

Only two countries – France and Turkey – reported a higher share of respondents believing their nation is in decline in the most recent poll, released last month. Japan was also well above the 57 per cent average of all countries.

Ipsos described the findings as part of a global trend, warning: “The diagnosis is stark: across the globe, a profound pessimism is setting in.”

While the report noted that this sense of “societal fracture” is especially acute in Western democracies such as the US, Britain and France, it emphasised that the sentiment has clearly spread to other regions – including Japan.

  

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