Japanese people are inclined to play down the rights that foreign residents of Japan are entitled to, according to a government survey released Saturday.
Reports of increased crimes committed by foreigners may have influenced those responding to the survey, which focused on human rights awareness.
Of the more than 2,000 adult respondents, 54 percent said the human rights of people who are not Japanese citizens should be protected to the same degree as Japanese nationals. That figure is nearly 12 percentage points below that of the previous survey, conducted in 1997.