Two recent polls on grass-roots perception -- one in Japan, China and South Korea, and the other in Japan and the United States -- offer a helpful clue in putting Japan's relations with these other countries in a perspective wider than government-level relations. The survey conducted by Kyodo News in mid-May, with some 1,000 people responding each in Japan, China and South Korea, show that our neighbors look at Japan with critical eyes.
In China, 83 percent of the pollees say they feel little or no warmth toward Japan. The corresponding figure in South Korea is 75 percent. Both figures represent a worsening of sentiment toward Japan since the previous poll in 2002. At that time, people who felt little or no warmth toward Japan accounted for 67 percent in China and 69 percent in South Korea.
By contrast, 48 percent in Japan hold either some or strong feelings of warmth toward China; and 58 percent toward South Korea. Interestingly, while the figure for China represents a decrease of six percentage points from the 2002 poll, the corresponding figure for South Korea has gone up by five percentage points probably due to the "Hanryu" boom or heightened interest among Japanese in South Korean movies and TV dramas.