Korean Media: Set a New Historical High, 56% of Koreans Have a Favorable View of Japan!

On March 11, the Korean media "Cultural Daily" published an article stating that a public opinion survey showed that more than half of Koreans have a favorable view of Japan. Since the survey began in 2014, the favorable rate of Koreans toward Japan has exceeded 50% for the first time.

The Japan News and Communication Research Association announced that in a "public opinion survey on Japan" conducted from November to December last year in six countries - South Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and Thailand - with approximately 1,000 people in each country, 56.4% of Koreans had a favorable view of Japan, an increase of 15.8 percentage points compared to the previous year.

The favorable rate of Koreans toward Japan is relatively high among people aged 10s to 30s, while it is the lowest among those aged 50s, at 45.6%. The Japanese newspaper "Yomiuri Shimbun" cited this result, saying, "The emphasis of Prime Minister Asahi Hayato on the South Korea-Japan relationship seems to have had an impact."

However, the favorable rate of Koreans toward Japan is lower than that of other surveyed countries. The favorable rates of Thailand, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France toward Japan all exceeded 80%, while Russia's favorable rate was 56.5%, slightly higher than South Korea, but decreased by 12.5 percentage points compared to the previous year.

In the surveyed countries, Thailand and France had relatively high favorable rates toward South Korea. Thailand's favorable rate increased by 5.5 percentage points, reaching 75.1%, and France also increased by 5.5 percentage points, reaching 68.1%. Next were Russia (61.7%), the United States (50.9%), and the United Kingdom (42.2%).

US President Donald Trump, who follows the "America First" policy, received extremely negative evaluations in all countries. In South Korea, the proportion of respondents who believed that Trump had a negative impact on the world was the highest, reaching 73.7%. This proportion also exceeded 70% in France and Thailand, and was 62.3% in the UK. Next was the US at 57.9%, and Russia at 52.2%.

Original: toutiao.com/article/1859365598982681/

Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.