TOKYO -- More than half of Japanese are unhappy with Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election, but many do not see it affecting bilateral relations, a recent Nikkei Inc./TV Tokyo poll shows.
In the telephone survey from Friday to Sunday, 56% of respondents said they were disappointed that Trump would be the next American leader, greatly outnumbering the 20% seeing it as a positive development. The businessman's inflammatory rhetoric on the campaign trail seems to have raised concerns in Japan. By gender, 62% of women were critical of him, compared with 51% of men.
But the president-elect seems to have adopted a more pragmatic approach in some areas since the Nov. 8 vote. A plurality of poll respondents, or 46%, foresee no change in bilateral relations under the Trump administration, while 34% expect ties to deteriorate and 6% expect an improvement.
During the campaign, Trump called on Japan to shoulder a heavier financial burden for maintaining the American military presence here. A majority, 51%, responded that the current framework should not be altered, with 34% saying that Japan should pay less and 5% that it should pay more.
(Nikkei)
