The Japanese political distrust is characterized by the output-oriented political dissatisfaction. The Japanese type of the output-oriented dissatisfaction is one of the eight types of the political distrust, which are based on the input-output model of the political system. The Japanese output-oriented type can be described as the following expression: “The politics cannot be trusted because we are dissatisfied with the governmental policy and action not because we are not enough participating in politics.” This Japanese characteristics is clarified by analyzing the data from the omnibus survey conducted in Japan and the United States.
The eight types are derived from the patterns of the correlation between four variables of political dissatisfaction and the twelve attitudes of political participation. The four dissatisfaction variables are the strength of political dissatisfaction in general, the direction of political dissatisfaction, the degree of political dissatisfaction with the input of the political system and the degree of political dissatisfaction with the output of the political system. The twelve attitudes of participation cover the following areas; the self-image of participation, the function of an election, the feeling when voting, political involvement and the importance of participation in value priority. The Japanese type of political distrust is quite different from the American type; the Japanese attitudes correlate to the degree of political dissatisfaction especially with the output, and the American attitudes correlate to the strength of political dissatisfaction in general.
The typical Japanese of this type is expressed as ‘depending on others’ people. The more dissatisfied with political output they are, the more social reformations they think are necessary. However, on the input process they are satisfied only with voting. This contradiction between the input and the output satisfaction comes from the attitudes which attach greater importance to the output rather than the input. Thus, they don't think the dissatisfaction with the governmental policy and action should be solved by increasing their own influence on politics. This ‘depending on others’ type people can be found mainly among highly educated Japanese men, who are said to have high capacity of political participation. This is a quite significant characteristics of political distrust in Japan.
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