Japanese people’s sentiment toward China and South Korea improved in 2024, according to results of a survey by the Cabinet Office released Friday.
In the survey, 14.7% of all respondents said they had more or less friendly feelings toward China, up 2.0 percentage points from the 2023 survey, while 56.3% said they had such feelings toward South Korea, up 3.5 percentage points.
Meanwhile, the proportion of respondents who did not have friendly feelings toward the Middle East jumped 12.9 points from the 2022 survey to 82.8%, the highest since the survey began asking this question in 1998, against the backdrop of the war in the Gaza Strip.
A total of 94.3% said that they did not have friendly feelings toward Russia, which continues to wage war against Ukraine following its invasion in 2022.
The 2024 survey, conducted between Oct. 17 and Nov. 24 via mail, covered 3,000 people age 18 and above across the nation. Of the total, 57.8% gave valid responses.
Japanese sentiment toward China improved for the first time in five years, although direct comparisons cannot be made because the survey’s methodology changed in 2020.
“Mutual understanding seems to be spreading as the number of inbound visitors (to Japan) increases,” a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.
Sentiment toward South Korea continued to improve, especially among younger generations. Among respondents in their 20s and younger, 72.6% said they had friendly feelings toward the neighboring country.
The proportion of respondents who said Japan has more or less good relations with China rose 3.2 percentage points to 8.8% while the share of those who said Japan has good relations with South Korea climbed 5.1 percentage points to 51.2%.
A total of 89.3% answered in the affirmative to a question about whether Japan should be one of the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, while 8.5% disagreed.
