Japanese people with a favorable impression of South Korea outnumbered those with an unfavorable one for the first time in a decade, a survey showed Thursday, amid signs the Asian neighbors' ties are improving after they frayed over wartime issues.

According to an annual joint poll by Japanese nonprofit think tank Genron NPO and the Seoul-based East Asia Institute, a record-high 37.4% of 1,000 Japanese respondents said their view on South Korea is "good," up from 30.4% a year earlier.

Those who answered "bad" accounted for 32.8%, down from 40.3%. Since the survey began in 2013, the largest share of respondents had a negative view of South Korea until last year.