Share of Chinese with good impression of Japan tumbles

Jiji Press

15:37 JST, February 27, 2022

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The proportion of people in China who have a favorable impression of Japan has plummeted, a think tank survey showed Saturday.

In the annual survey, conducted by Japan Press Research Institute in six countries in November-December 2021, 26.3% of people in China said that they feel close to Japan, down by 13.4 percentage points from the previous survey.

The drop was largest on record. As reasons, personnel in charge of the research in China cited Japanese politicians’ remarks about Taiwan, which China regards as a renegade province, and a decrease in the amount of favorable information on Japan in line with suspension of tourism due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to officials of the institute.

The share of people with a good impression of Japan was largest in Thailand, at 93.4%, followed by the United States, at 79.0%, France, at 78.1%, Britain, at 73.3%, and South Korea, at 31.2%.

In the survey, about 1,000 people in each of the six countries gave responses. The institute launched the survey in 2015. The Chinese part of the survey began in 2016.