Record number of Japanese hostile toward China and S. Korea: Cabinet Office poll

Kyodo

The number of Japanese who feel unfriendly toward China and South Korea has surged to an all-time high, a Cabinet Office survey showed Saturday, reflecting the continued fallout of territorial clashes and deep divisions over wartime history.

The ratio of people who declared themselves hostile toward China rose to an alarming 83.1 percent, up 2.4 percentage points from the previous survey in November 2013, while the same tally regarding South Korea jumped 8.4 points to 66.4 percent, according to the findings.

The ratio is at its highest level since the Cabinet Office carried out the first survey in 1978. The latest survey was conducted from Oct. 16 to 26.

Amid ice-cold diplomatic relations, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was only able to hold his first formal talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing last month, after nearly two years in office, and his offers of bilateral talks have so far been dismissed by South Korean President Park Geun-hye.

Meanwhile, those pronouncing themselves “friendly” toward China slipped 3.3 points to a paltry 14.8 percent. The figure came to 31.5 percent in South Korea’s case, a substantial dip of 9.2 points.

Asked about the current state of Sino-Japanese ties, 84.5 percent responded that the relationship is “not good,” or “not particularly good.” Only 5.3 percent said ties with China are “somewhat good” or “good.”

As for South Korea, some 77.2 percent of the respondents said bilateral relations are “not good,” or “not particularly good.”

Tensions between Japan and South Korea have soared due to a sovereignty dispute over a pair of South Korea-controlled islets, the Japanese military’s coercion of women for its wartime network of brothels, and the indictment in October of a Japanese reporter in South Korea on charges of slandering Park, among other issues.

Meanwhile, the poll also showed that the number of Japanese who feel friendly toward the United States remained strong at 82.6 percent, a slight decline from the 83.1 percent seen in the previous survey.

On North Korea, 88.3 percent of the respondents declared an interest in Pyongyang’s abductions of Japanese nationals, followed by 55.6 percent who voiced interest in Pyongyang’s missile development, and 54.0 percent who are following the North’s nuclear armament drive. Multiple replies were allowed.

The survey covered 3,000 adults, of whom 60 percent provided valid responses. No margin of error was given.

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  • timefox

    Natural result. The summit was done with China, but you’ll never need to talk with such rude country.

    • vlee29au

      “China and Korea invade Japan.”

      Totally false. Could you show us the evidence?

      • timefox

        Korean invasions are an invasion to Takeshima in Japan territory and illegal occupation. 44 Japanese fishermen were killed and wounded by Korean Army in case of a performed invasion in 1952, and 3929 people were kidnaped by Korea.

        A Chinese invasion is an invasion to Senkaku-shoto in Japan territory.348 Chinese official ships invaded Senkaku-shoto in Japan territory from 2008 to 2014. An illegal stay by a Chinese has also occurred.Abnormal approach to Japan territory by Chinese military is also a problem. All this has occurred around Senkaku-shoto mostly. Japan scrambled 1528 times to abnormal approach of these Chinese military since 2010.

  • Testerty

    It is natural to hate the sub-human, especially many Japanese department stores are making sales announcement in sub-human languages which they don’t even understand.

    • tiger

      is it natural to nuke the sub-human too?

      • Testerty

        In this case, the sub-human has nuke….. and that is just so insulting to the Japanese.

      • tiger

        wait, who are the sub-humans you were talking of?

      • Testerty

        LOL

  • ostkrieg

    Well, if the leaders of China and South Korea even refuse to meet the Japanese PM for years, and when they do, they make a face like they are shaking hands with an ebola patient, it does send a message to Japan.

    Also signs like “Japanese and dogs not allowed” in Chinese stores also don’t help.

  • rossdorn

    The article is bad news, because it shows how easy it is for the media to manipulate a people like the japanese, that has never learned to think for themselves.

    Even worse are the commentaries, they are really embarrassing…

    • phu

      You’re right; everywhere else in the world, people are thinking logically and taking corrective action to ensure their governments behave in productive and globally progressive ways. Not only that, Japan’s government is uniquely terrible in its incredible repression of honesty in media.

      Or maybe you’re just totally off in left field, as usual, and Japan is acting pretty much exactly the same as South Korea and, in some cases, China. They’re all being run into the ground by fools, some faster than others.

      And maybe the rest of the world is pretty much screwed in the same way, in varying degrees. Which would mean everyone has a problem they should be working on, both individually and together.

      But hey, that makes it pretty hard to make hilarious generalizations about the Japanese. So please, continue ignoring every possible aspect of this silly place we call The Real World, since it stubbornly thumbs its nose in your direction every time you turn on your computer.

  • China_Lee

    At least the feeling is mutual.

    1. Shinzo Abe and his cabinet ministers keep celebrating their visits to Yasukuni Shrine with Class A war criminals.

    2. Shinzo Abe’s government can’t seem to pass a week without uttering or publishing a report about the “China threat.”

    3. After decades of litigation, the Japanese supreme court ruled in 2010 that no victim of Japanese war crimes during World War II (e.g. Chinese and Korean civilians killed by Japan in cold blood and foreign sex slaves) was entitled to any monetary compensation.

    4. Japan is rewriting its textbooks to absolve itself of its crimes during World War II. Japan wants to whitewash the Japanese responsibility and teach the fiction of protecting Asia from the West.

    In conclusion, the blame for poor Sino-Japanese and Korea-Japan relations lies with Japan.

    • CaptainAsia

      1. Xi Jinping and the CCP keep celebrating and worshiping the most murderous dictator, Mao and his killer army by enshrining his embalmed corpse in the center of Tiannanmen Square.

      2. Xi’s regime cant seem to pass a week without lying and publishing made up censored stories on CCP propaganda mouthpiece Xinhua about China’s neighbors and the wider world.

      3.Decades after stealing Tibet and killing millions of Tibetans, CCP and PLA continue to deny compensation to the Tibetan people and instead are practicing one of the most covert forms racial genocide by slowly eradicating the Tibetan People and language through the enforced mass migration of Han Chinese into Tibet.

      4. The CCP has rewritten history and historical maps and boundaries and continues to do so till this day. CCP textbooks teach false maps and call invasions liberation in typical Maoist fashion, thus absolving itself of mass murder and whitewashing the bloodshed of millions.

      In conclusion the current lies that China keeps telling its people and attempts to raise Xenophobia by towing on the strings of history by lying about Japan to the people of China is to blame for the poor relationship between not only China and Japan, but also India, Burma, Vietnam, Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and so on.

      • China Lee

        Your comment is off-topic and not related to “The Japan Times” news article on China-Japan relations.

        Therefore, it does not merit a point-by-point reply.

        I will be happy to debate you on each issue under the proper news article. By the way, you are wrong on each point.

      • rossdorn

        Well, that is obviously true, but you are also wrong on one point… China is no different and no better than Japan.
        Their politicians are a lot more intelligent, and understand politics a lot better.
        Given the way you get to the top of both countries is totally different. Going through the ranks of the party and the polit bureau, you have to prove yourself continually and then the more or less best of them get to the top.
        Given that, it still says nothing about the contents of chinese politics, only about its efficency

        In Japan however… well if anyone does not understand how the system works here, then he cannot be helped.

  • timefox

    The Chinese who poached for coral was also arrested today.

  • 민호 김

    And the pot calls the kettle black

    • rossdorn

      I admit, I like Korea even less, but at least there, youi are right.

  • rossdorn

    Just one thing: why it is a waste of time “discussing” anything with you.
    In the first sentence you claim by what you probably consider irony, that the rest of the world is no different from Japan…

    In the next paragraph you admit, that Japan is actually on the level of S-Korea and China. Which happens to be precisely what I wrote….

    You do not think about what you write. You belong to funny group in this forum whose members see “rossdorn” and go on automatic…. “Oh this guy always complains about Japan, and I find Japan wonderful, so he must be an idiot!”

    Well, fine with me, go ahead, enjoy….

  • timefox

    China has begun to construct a military base near Senkaku Islands. One reason that China is disliked by Japan increased.

  • Ahojanen

    I don’t think that both sides must try hard at any expense to (pretend to) be nice and friendly to each other. Also one should not take it too personally.

    The Japanese public sentiment is not really “hostile” to its continental neighbours. An accurate description may be “tiring” or “avoiding.” They now seem to prefer to keep some distance while agreeing to live side by side with the the neighbours (perhaps except Taiwan).

  • JimmyJM

    The key many miss is that this survey is based on 1800 responses (60% of 3000). That’s not a lot to base an article like this on. It certainly stirred up the bashers on both sides though.

  • TBL

    Doesn’t have any impact for China or Korea what the feelings of the Japanese people are. This is a country on the way down and on the way out. It will have minimal impact on world affairs in 20 years time and will be a complete non-factor in 50.

    China’s strategic calculus is simple. Plod on with internal and external improvements with or without Japan. Korea’s strategic calculus is even simpler. Replace the market share of Japanese companies in China with Korean companies. With the way the Japanese population is thinking, this job just got faster, easier and will get a lot more direct assistance from China.

    Japan, you’re in zugzwang.

  • vir wol

    Japanese should be scare. They should fear the revenge of the Chinese in future. LOL

  • Toolonggone

    Opinion poll is just a rough indicator. It depicts the current status of how people think of their neighbors based on information they get at the time of survey. It does not mean that people being surveyed will hold the same position in mid-to-long term. Please, Japan is a country that has approximately 126 million of population. 3000 samples are still too small to scientifically represent the majority of public opinion. Also, where are the demographics of sample? Several important factors such as ethnic/cultural background, socio-economic background, gender/age, political views are missing. Why isn’t there even a margin of error in survey?

  • timefox

    The disliked cause?

    A war vessel of Chinese military is close to 80km in Senkaku-shoto in December 2014.

    A Chinese navy put the practice by which Japan is surrounded from north and south into effect for the first time in December 2014.

    China invaded Japanese territorial waters on December 19 and 23. And a Chinese ship carried on illegal activity in Japanese EEZ on December 25. China is destroying Japanese peace aggressively.

    81 Chinese official ships invade Japan territorial waters in 2014.

    A Chinese poached for coral in the Japan territorial waters in Ogasawara and Japan EEZ. As a result, coral suffered destroying damage in November 2014.

    China has begun to construct a military base near Senkaku Islands. One reason that China is disliked by Japan increased in 2014.

    The number of urgent scrambles when a Chinese military machine was close to Japan territory abnormally, was 207 times in 2014/1～2014/9.