**Sharp Deterioration in 87.7% of Chinese Views…Slight Improvement for 89.0% of Japanese Views**
(Tokyo=Yonhap News) Special Correspondent Kim Soo-hyun reports that the perception of Japan among Chinese people has significantly worsened this year, according to a survey.
The Japanese think tank Genron NPO, in collaboration with China’s overseas publication-related organization ‘China International Publishing Group,’ conducted a survey between October and November involving 1,000 Japanese and 1,500 Chinese participants. The results, announced on the 2nd, showed that 87.7% of Chinese respondents held a negative impression of Japan.
The percentage of Chinese respondents with a negative view of Japan increased by 24.8 percentage points from last year’s 62.9%.
This marks the highest level of negative perception among Chinese people toward Japan since 2013, when 92.8% viewed Japan negatively, following Japan’s nationalization of the Senkaku Islands.
Among the Japanese surveyed, 89.0% stated they had a negative impression of China. However, this figure is 3.2 percentage points lower than last year’s 92.2%.
The proportion of Chinese respondents who believe that bilateral relations are not important surged to 59.6% this year from 19.1% last year, setting a record high.
In contrast, the proportion of Japanese respondents who felt that bilateral relations are not important decreased from 7.5% to 5.0%.
Genron NPO noted, “It is risky to conclude whether the sharp deterioration in Chinese impressions of Japan is a one-time occurrence or a fundamental change based on a single survey.” However, they suggested that repeated exposure to news portraying Japan as a confrontational nation allied with the United States on social media might have influenced perceptions.