A recent opinion poll shows that Chinese young people are more positive about their views of Japan and many Chinese people deem Sino-Japanese ties important and expect both sides to strengthen cooperation in addressing post-pandemic, global issues. 

The results were released online before the 17th Beijing-Tokyo Forum, a high-level public diplomatic communication platform between China and Japan, which opened on Oct. 25. 

The poll, jointly conducted by China International Publishing Group (CIPG) and the Japanese think-tank Genron NPO, received responses from 1,547 Chinese residents living in 10 Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu between August and September.

Regarding Sino-Japanese relations, 32.1% of Chinese respondents held a "favorable" or "relatively favorable" impression of Japan, 13.1 percentage points lower than the previous year. 

However, young respondents were more positive about their views of Japan and the future of bilateral ties. About 39.1% of Chinese poll-takers aged between 18 and 35 regarded Japan as "favorable" or "relatively favorable," and 30.6% of them thought bilateral relations would be "better" or "relatively better" in the future, compared with 22.9% of the total Chinese respondents.

Meanwhile, 70.9% of Chinese respondents considered Sino-Japanese relations "important" or "relatively important,” and 76.3% of them supported bilateral cooperation in Asian affairs including complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula (36%), enhancing China-Japan maritime and air crisis management (32.3%), renewable energy (26.5%), and avoiding disputes and maintaining lasting peace in Northeast Asia (26.1%).

A total of 71.6% of Chinese respondents believed China and Japan enjoy strong economic ties, and 87.5% of them deemed rules-based free trade as well as an open economic order and multilateralism "very important" or "relatively important" to the future global economy.  

The poll also found that 66.6% of Chinese respondents believed people-to-people exchanges were less active over the past year, 14.2 percentage points up over 2020. 

Historical issues still loom over Sino-Japanese relations. 62.4% of Chinese respondents regarded territorial disputes as the major obstacles to bilateral relations, 7.2 percentage points higher over 2020. 61.3% of them saw Japan as a military threat, up by 13.4 percentage points from last year.

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