Current Japanese Opinion of the U.S. and the Conflict in Vietnam

Current Brief
IRS/AF
April 19, 1966

 

CURRENT JAPANESE OPINION OF THE U.S. AND THE CONFLICT IN VIETNAM^[1]

With one significant exception, Japanese opinion of the Vietnam situation and U.S. involvement has shown no important shifts between June 1965 and April 1966. A significant percentage of Japanese continued to hold an adverse view of U.S. support for the Government of Vietnam (GVN), to believe that the U.S. should take a more conciliatory attitude towards the opposition and to oppose Japanese support of the GVN. There was a slight but insignificant rise in Japanese opinion of U.S. efforts to prevent a new world war.

The one striking shift was on the question of Japanese impressions of recent U.S. activities in international affairs. The U.S. position improved substantially with a net favorable gain of 26 percent in a ten months period. This gain brought the U.S. standing on this issue up from its lowest point in nine years (-26 percent) to the zero point, i.e. an equal percentage of approval and disapproval. (Table Attached)

Clearly overall U.S. behavior on the international scene impressed the Japanese favorably but they remained consistent in their adverse opinion of the Vietnam conflict. The so-called U.S. "peace offensive" and the Honolulu Conference — both of which received extensive and favorable comment in the Japanese press — may have contributed substantially to the improvement of Japanese opinion on the general question of U.S. foreign policy.

Have you a favorable or unfavorable impression of what the following countries have been doing in international affairs recently? Very or somewhat? (U.S.)

 

 

United States:
	April 1966	June 1965
No. of cases	(995)	(1034)
Favorable — very	4	2
Favorable — somewhat	26	11
Unfavorable — somewhat	22	26
Unfavorable — very	8	13
Don't know	38	48
No answer	2	_
	100%	100%
Net Favorable	0	-26

1. This summary is based on a comparison of the results of an April 1966 survey with similar questions from WS III of June 1965. Questions in the current survey were limited to items pertinent to U.S. policy and Vietnam.