SOUTH KOREA In Tokyo and Seoul, two-thirds of citizens are disappointed with democracy

A Pew Research Institute survey confirmed a trend that began before the pandemic. However, respondents often answer the question based on their country’s economic performance and by looking at the performance of the government in power. In both Japan and South Korea, heads of state have the lowest approval ratings ever recorded.

Washington () – Dissatisfaction with democracy is growing in high-income countries, with Asia, Japan and South Korea showing the highest percentages of disappointment, according to a recent study. Pew Research Institute studya data and opinion gathering body that each year asks tens of thousands of respondents how satisfied they are with the functioning of democracy in their country.

The trend began in 2017: In a small group of 12 advanced democracies, discontent was growing steadily until the pandemic. After a slight improvement in 2021, the figure began to rise again. In South Korea, satisfaction with democracy fell by 17 percentage points, from 53% to 36%. In Japan, the decline was smaller, but remains at the same level: from 38% in 2021 to 31% in 2024. Those who declare themselves dissatisfied are respectively 63% in South Korea and 67% in Japan. In none of the 12 democracies considered, the research institute notes, has satisfaction with democracy increased.

For a more comprehensive comparison with the rest of the region, the Pew Research Institute also studied 19 other countries this year. In Asia, there are large differences from one country to another: more than three-quarters of Indians (77%) and Singaporeans (80%) are happy with the way their democracy works (in India, the data was collected before the recent elections). In Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines, the dissatisfied rate is less than 50%. In Sri Lanka, however, the percentage of dissatisfied people is 58% compared to 38% who say they are satisfied.

However, the research institute noted that what people say about democracy is closely related to what they think about the economy: if they evaluate one negatively, they are more likely to judge the other in the same way. The political orientation of the respondents also plays a role in their evaluation: supporters of the government tend to give a more positive opinion of democracy than those who prefer the opposition.

The data on Japan and South Korea, in fact, cannot be read separately from those relating to government approval: according to a recent surveysupport for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, due to fundraising scandals involving some party members, has fallen again in the last month to 21%, the lowest figure ever recorded since Kishida came to power in 2021.

Internal elections in the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) are due in September to choose who will head the party (and take up the post of next prime minister), but in recent days the gubernatorial elections, to be held on July 7, have been catalysing public attention in Tokyo, because decisions in the capital – which has around 14 million inhabitants, with an annual budget of more than 16 trillion yen (100 billion dollars) – often dictate the line at the national level as well. The victory of Governor Yuriko Koike of the LDP, with a slight advantage over the opposition candidate Renho Murata, supported by the Constitutional Democratic Party, It is not so inevitableaccording to commentators.

Similarly, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s approval rating, is around 20%the lowest figure ever recorded by a president of the Sixth Republic (which began in 1988, when the dictatorship ended) in the second year of his mandate. In the parliamentary elections of April, voters rejected the government of the People Power Party, which only managed to retain 108 seats in the National Assembly compared to the 187 obtained by the opposition Democratic Party.

Here too, the president’s figure has been penalized by a series of scandals, in particular the one concerning the possessions of the first lady Kim Keon-hee, but it also confirms what the Pew Research Institute shows: among those who have expressed disapproval of Yoon, 19% expressed their dissatisfaction with the economic situation, high inflation and poor livelihoods, while 15% cited the president’s poor communication with the people.