A curious thing about Polish opinion polls is that they generally ask about “trust” in politicians (hence headlines such as “majority of Poles do not trust” Tusk, Kaczyński etc). In Japan (and, I think, most other countries) polls usually ask about “support”, with “trust”
seen only as one element of “support” (questions about “trust” are much less common and almost invariably Japanese Prime Ministers enjoy the highest level of “trust” at the onset of their stay in office). In Poland it seems one generally “trusts” or “distrusts” politicians but
supports political parties. I have always wondered how many people actually support politicians they don’t trust. My impression was that in Japan it was the usual state of affairs, especially in the 80s and 90s, when practically every Prime Ministerial term ended in a scandal
and resignation. And of course, in the early 1980s, Kakuei Tanaka was able to dominate Japanese politics through his control of his LDP faction, while on trial in connection with the Lockheed scandal & not even a party member. During that whole period the LDP (nominally
headed by Yasuhiro Nakasone, who remained Prime Minister thanks to Tanaka’s support, had no trouble winning elections and Tanaka won his own Niigata constituency in record landslides.
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