"America First" Policy Under Trump Administration Fuels Distrust
Declining Trust in the US Also Seen in South Korea and Taiwan
Despite the existence of a security treaty between the United States and Japan, 77% of Japanese people do not believe that the US would protect Japan in the event of an emergency.
The Asahi Shimbun reported on April 27 that it conducted a mail-in public opinion survey from late February to early April.
According to the survey, only 15% of the 1,899 respondents answered that the US would sincerely protect Japan in an emergency. In contrast, 77% gave skeptical responses, saying they did not think so.
The newspaper noted, "It is difficult to make a simple comparison because the survey methods are different," but added, "In similar past surveys, the rate of skepticism regarding US defense of Japan was just over 60% at its highest." The report went on to analyze, "It appears that the actions of the Donald Trump administration, which emphasizes 'America First,' have led to this distrust."
Regarding diplomacy as well, 68% of respondents said that "it is better to be as self-reliant as possible," far surpassing the 24% who said "it is better to follow US intentions as much as possible."
Meanwhile, since President Trump took office, perceptions of the US have also worsened in South Korea and Taiwan.
On April 25 (local time), experts from the Brookings Institution, a US think tank, released the results of public opinion surveys conducted among voters in South Korea and Taiwan in July of last year and again in March and April of this year after President Trump took office.
In the March survey this year, 41.9% of South Korean respondents answered "yes" to the question, "Do you consider the US a trustworthy ally?" This is a decrease of 6.4 percentage points from 48.3% in the July survey last year.
Regarding the likelihood that the US would help if a war were to break out between North and South Korea, 69.6% of South Korean respondents were optimistic in the July survey last year, but this figure dropped to 60.2% in the March survey this year.
In Taiwan, the percentage of respondents who considered the US a trustworthy ally fell from 33.6% in July last year to 23.1% in April this year. The percentage who believed the US would help if a war broke out between Taiwan and China also dropped from 45.5% to 37.5%.
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