Word: polled
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...wealth and population density are different from those in the rest of Japan. But dissatisfaction with leadership is running high. Japan is reeling from a jobless rate that has reached a five-year high of 5.2%, and industrial output is down one-third from a year ago. A recent poll conducted by the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper showed that 41% of Japanese would vote for the DPJ in a general election, while just 24% would cast ballots for the LDP. "Ordinary people are seeking a change of government," says Takao Toshikawa, editor of political newsletter Tokyo Insideline. "I dare say that...
...what specifically are French voyagers faulted for? The Expedia poll says French travelers are the biggest skinflints, the worst tippers and the least able or inclined to speak foreign languages. They also finished next to last in terms of their politeness and behavior. (The worst offenders in both those categories were - wait for it - Americans, who were also designated most likely to complain...
...Even where it did score well in the survey, Team France suffered stinging humiliation. Not only were the French denied the Best Dressed championship by the Italians, for example, but they lost second spot to the Brits - whose fashion sense is usually likened to that of the poll's slob champs, the Yanks. France's fourth-place finish for "Most Quiet" was tarnished by the Wagnerian-lunged Germans' walking off with the bronze. (See pictures of East Germany making light of its past...
...chagrined French reaction (and TIME.com's coverage of the 2008 poll) shows, the Expedia survey gets a lot of attention. This year's best-ranked tourists - the Japanese were followed by English, Canadian, German and Swiss travelers - are likely to point proudly to the outcome as a paragon of scientific accuracy. But this third annual bruising of French pride should be taken with a pinch of salt. There are several aspects of the survey that make its methodology suspect - and results significantly skewed. The poll ranks 27 nations' travelers over nine behavioral categories. But it questioned just 4,500 respondents...
...Moreover, because the lingua franca of international hotel staffs is English, notoriously monolingual Americans, Brits and Australians probably rank higher than they should. The French readily volunteer that their practice of foreign languages leaves much to be desired, but even the harshest Francophobe would mock the poll's finding that the average Yank tourist is the better polyglot. At least that's what French travelers might argue...