The survey in Japan is part of the larger Spring 2012 Pew Global Attitudes survey conducted in 21 countries under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International.

Results for the survey in Japan are based on 700 telephone interviews conducted March 20 to April 12, 2012. The survey is representative of all landline telephone households. It uses a Random Digit Dial (RDD) probability sample and is stratified by region and population size. All interviews were conducted in Japanese.

The margin of sampling error is ±4.1 percentage points. For the results based on the full sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus the margin of error. In addition to sampling error, one should bear in mind that question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of opinion polls.