Opinion Poll: South African Image of Japan (Outline of Results)

June 9, 2011
Japanese

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs commissioned a South African research company to conduct an opinion poll on the image of Japan in South Africa from February 14 to March 9, 2011 (The sampling error is plus or minus 3.1% at the 95% level of confidence interval).

General Views
● In response to the question of whether Japan is a trustworthy country, 71.4% said "Yes" while 5.2% "No". Additionally, with regard to friendly relations between Japan and South Africa, 90.3% of the respondents answered "definitely important" or "important", while 6.0% answered "Not really important" or "Not important at all".

● Regarding areas of interest in Japan, "science/technology" (60.3%) and "culture/arts/foods/language" (44.4%), ranked highest. In the area of culture and arts, 39.8% responded that they were interested in "sumo/martial arts (karate, judo, kendo, etc.)", 36.1% in "Japanese food", and 32.2% in "traditional theatre, calligraphy".

● With regard to positive attributes of the Japanese people, "diligent/hard working" (62.0%), "creative" (44.3%), and "cherish traditional culture" (29.1%) ranked highest.

● Regarding areas where Japan should take the lead, "help develop the global economy" (55.4%), "promote the development of science and technology" (52.0%), and "help protect the global environment" (32.9%) ranked highest. Additionally, as to the question of whether Japan should become a permanent member of the UN Security Council, 65.5% said "Yes", while 5.1% said "No".

● In response to the question of which countries in East Asia are important partners for South Africa, 32.5% said "Japan", while 44.5% said "China".
Other Points
● As for Japanese investment in South Africa, 93.2% answered positively. With regard to impressive aspects of Japanese companies, 86.9% deemed them to be "technologically advanced". Additionally, in response to the question of what products they associated with Japan, "personal computer" (67.2%) and "vehicles" (67.1%) ranked highest. With regard to impressive aspects of Japanese products, 60.3% said "good and stylish design", 56.2% said "high quality", and 37.8% said "multi-functional".

● As for visits to Japan, only 2% responded that they had "visited Japan", and 81.6% cited the costliness of travel as the reason for not visiting. In response to the question of interests if they were to visit Japan in future, 58.9% responded that they would be interested in "Japanese cuisine", 55.7% in "shopping", and 44.6% in "appreciating traditional culture".

(* This is a provisional translation. The above date denotes the date of the issue of the original press release in Japanese.)

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