WIN Gallup International recently announced the results of their international survey on people’s willingness to fight for their country. Despite recent changes to the constitution, it turns out Japanese Johnnies are least likely to get their guns among all nations surveyed.
The survey polled 1,000 people in each of the 64 different countries and regions included. Overall about 61 percent of people in the world are willing to fight for their country. That average is dragged down considerably by Japan, where only 11 percent would answer their nation’s call of duty.
Generally, countries with ongoing conflicts or tensions with neighboring countries ranked high on the list, such as Pakistan, where 89 percent were willing to fight for their country. However, topping the list were Morocco and Fiji, which were tied at 94 percent. I’m not sure exactly why, but they’re both quite beautiful countries. Perhaps that makes people extra passionate about protecting them.
Other anomalies include Finland which ranked high among European countries with 74 percent of people willing to throw down. Perhaps because they have the solemn duty of protecting Santa’s workshop at all costs.
As far as why Japan has such rock-bottom willingness to fight for their country, here’s what some citizens had to say about it.
“This eleven percent talks about the concept of fighting, but it would be very different if there was a real conflict happening.”
“This is no surprise. Even all you who like to talk tough would just run away leaving a trail of urine when the time comes.”
“A country that says ‘I don’t want to fight. I want someone else to do it for me.'”
“It’s ridiculous that people are misled by the concept of arbitrary territories or countries.”
“Of course, there’s no real problems that people are facing now. Who knows in the future though?”
As some comments pointed out, people’s willingness to fight can easily sway one way or the other depending on circumstances. Since the WIN Gallup question had no context it was up to the respondents to assume who and why they would be fighting.
Perhaps, if we were to ask different nations whether they were willing to fight for something more universal, such as their right to party, we could get more consistent results. We’ll just have to wait for WIN Gallup International to get on that one…but it might take a while.
Countries ranked by willingness to fight for own nation (late 2014 data)
Morocco 94%
Fiji 94%
Pakistan 89%
Vietnam 89%
Bangladesh 86%
Azerbaijan 85%
Papua New Guinea 84%
Afghanistan 76%
Georgia 76%
India 75%
Finland 74%
Turkey 73%
Philippines 73%
Thailand 72%
Armenia 72%
China 71%
Indonesia 70%
Kazakhstan 69%
Kenya 69%
Israel 66%
Lebanon 66%
Panama 64%
Malaysia 63%
Ukraine 62%
Peru 61%
Colombia 61%
Russian Federation 59%
Kosovo 58%
Mexico 56%
Palestinian territories 56%
Sweden 55%
Bosnia and Herzegovina 55%
Ecuador 54%
Greece 54%
Nigeria 50%
Brazil 48%
Poland 47%
Serbia 46%
United States 44%
Argentina 43%
South Korea 42%
Latvia 41%
Switzerland 39%
Macedonia 38%
Ireland 38%
Romania 38%
Denmark 37%
Canada 30%
Australia 29%
France 29%
Portugal 28%
United Kingdom 27%
Iceland 26%
Bulgaria 25%
Hong Kong 23%
Czech Republic 23%
Spain 21%
Austria 21%
Italy 20%
Belgium 19%
Germany 18%
Netherlands 15%
Japan 11%
Source: WIN Gallup International (English), 47 News, Hachima Kiko (Japanese)
Image: Wikipedia/JGSDF (H22 Parade of Self-Defense Force)