53% of Japanese People Say "Korea is Friendly"... China's Favorability Hits Record Low

More than half of the Japanese population reportedly feel a sense of closeness toward Korea.

According to the results of the "2023 Public Opinion Survey on Diplomacy" released by the Japanese Cabinet Office on the 19th, 52.8% of respondents answered that they "feel close" to Korea. This marks a 6.9 percentage point increase compared to the previous survey conducted in October 2022 (45.9%). On the other hand, the percentage of respondents who answered that they "do not feel close to Korea" decreased by 7.3 percentage points, from 53.7% to 46.4%.

This public opinion survey was conducted from September 7 to October 15 last year, targeting 1,649 Japanese citizens aged 18 and older (based on valid responses).

The percentage of respondents who said the current Korea-Japan relationship is "favorable" rose to 46.1%, a 17.8 percentage point increase compared to the previous survey (28.3%). The percentage of those who said the Korea-Japan relationship is "not favorable" dropped by 17.5 percentage points, from 67.3% to 49.8%.

In November last year, President Yoon Suk-yeol, who visited the United States to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit, is shaking hands with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and taking a commemorative photo at a Korea-Japan summit held at a hotel in San Francisco.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

A Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs official told local media that "the background to the improvement in relations is the agreement reached in March last year between President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on a solution regarding the issue of forced laborers (the Japanese term for Koreans forcibly mobilized during the Japanese colonial period)."

Meanwhile, the percentage of respondents who said they feel close to China and Russia were only 12.7% and 4.1%, respectively, marking record lows.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.