Photo: Japanese prime minister Ishiba Shigeru (left) shakes hands with President Lee Jae-myung. Credit: Yonhap News.
There was an unexpected winner in the latest edition of Gallup Korea’s regular poll of public approval of the leaders of South Korea’s four neighboring countries - the United States, China, Japan, and Russia: Japanese prime minister Ishiba Shigeru, with 27% approval.
The number may not seem like much, but it is the highest approval rating for any Japanese leader since Gallup Korea first conducted the survey in 2013. Ishiba earned a relatively high mark on the strength of his shown willingness to stand against far-right historical revisionism. (See previous coverage, “Surprisingly Warm Relationship with Tokyo.”)
Although US presidents typically have led this survey, Donald Trump came in second place with 24% approval, paling in comparison to his predecessors Barack Obama (71% in 2013) and Joe Biden (49% in 2021). President Xi Jinping of China had 10% approval, and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, 4%.
