Yomiuri Shimbun November 2009 Japan-China Joint Public Opinion Poll

 

Q1.  Do you think the current state of the Japanese-Chinese relationship is good or bad?  

	Japan	China
Very good	4	4
If I were to choose, good	41	46
If I were to choose, bad	39	34
Very bad	8	9
No answer	8	6

 

Q2.  Do you think China ( Japan ) is trustworthy or not trustworthy?

Words in parenthesis were conducted in China only  

	Japan	China
Greatly trustworthy	3	3
Somewhat trustworthy	25	31
Not very trustworthy	46	41
Not trustworthy	23	22
No answer	3	3

 

Q3. Do you think the Japanese-Chinese relationship will improve, worsen or stay the same in the future?   

	Japan	China
Improve greatly	5	7
If I were to choose, relations will improve	29	46
Stay the same	50	31
If I were to choose, relations will worsen	10	8
Worsen greatly	2	3
No answer	4	5

 

Q4. In regards to the influence the Hatoyama Cabinet will have on Japanese-Chinese relations, do you think they will have a plus or minus influence?  

	Japan	China
Will have a larger plus influence	29	31
Will have a larger minus influence	17	12
The plus and minus influence will be about the same	41	35
No answer	13	22

 

Q5.  In which areas do you think Japan and China should pursue cooperation? Please choose as many as apply:  

	Japan	China
Politics/Diplomacy	48	38
Economy	52	50
National security	35	28
Resources/Energy development	38	31
Science technology	11	58
Environmental issues	49	43
Measures to combat infectious diseases such as pandemic influenzas	14	33
Education/Culture	14	46
Other	0	5
None/No answer	6	3

 

Q6.  In regard to China ’s economic development, do you think it will have a plus or minus influence on Japan ’s economy?  

	Japan	China
Will have a larger plus influence	29	58
Will have a larger minus influence	31	10
The plus and minus influence will be about the same	34	25
No answer	6	7

 

Q7.  What are some issues you currently consider serious within Japan ( China )? Please choose as many as apply:  

	Japan	China
Economy/Employment	82	48
Social security	41	37
Disparities such as economic	38	60
Declining birthrate and aging population	52	42
Environmental issues such as global warming	33	43
Food safety	21	39
Deteriorating safety of country	30	27
Other	1	4
Nothing in particular, No answer	1	2

 

Q8.  Developed countries such as Japan have set concrete numerical targets for decreasing the emissions from greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, which is considered the cause for global warming.  Do you think that China should also set a concrete numerical target for emissions or not?  

	Japan	China
Should set numerical target	79	65
If I were to choose, should set numerical target	14	26
If I were to choose, does not need to set numerical target	2	4
Does not need to set numerical target	2	2
No answer	3	3

 

Q9.  Do you hold expectations or not of China displaying a leadership role in resolving the North Korean nuclear issue?  

	Japan	China
Hold great expectations	45	44
Somewhat hold expectations	26	32
Do not hold very much expectations	19	16
Hold no expectations	6	3
No answer	3	5

 

Q10.  Do you think Japan has walked the path of a peace loving nation since World War II over 60 years ago?    

	Japan	China
Agree	62	18
If I were to choose, I agree	30	35
If I were to choose, I disagree	4	19
Disagree	3	25
No answer	1	4

 

Q11.  Do you think the Beijing Olympics held in August of last year helped improve or not improve China ’s image?  

	Japan	China
Image improved	22	80
If I were to choose, image improved	28	15
If I were to choose, image did not improve	23	4
Image did not improve	23	1
No answer	4	0

 

Q12.  Do you have an interest or not in the Shanghai World Expo being held in May of next year?  

	Japan	China
Greatly interested	5	43
Somewhat interested	13	38
Not very interested	36	14
Not interested	45	4
No answer	1	1

 

Q13.  Which country or region do you think should shoulder the role as Asia ’s leader in the future?  Please choose up to two choices from the following:  

	Japan	China
Japan	76	33
China	60	91
Korea	14	10
Taiwan	1	6
India	16	17
Thailand	1	0
Malaysia	1	2
Indonesia	1	1
Other ASEAN countries (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) besidesThailand,Malaysia, andIndonesia	2	1
Other, None in particular, No answer	5	2

 

Q14. Which country, China ( Japan ) or the United States , do you feel will be more important to Japan ( China ) in the future for “political” matters?

Words in parenthesis were conducted in China only  

	Japan	China
China(Japan)	18	4
United States	52	44
Both are important	28	50
No answer	2	2

 

Q15.  Which country, China ( Japan ) or the United States , do you feel will be more important to Japan ( China ) in the future for “economic” matters?

Words in parenthesis were conducted in China only  

	Japan	China
China(Japan)	46	6
United States	28	52
Both are important	24	41
No answer	2	2

 

Q16.  In order to improve Japanese-Chinese relations, which issues should be given priority to resolving?  Please choose one answer from the following:  

	Japan	China
Joint development of theEast China Seagas field	20	20
Problems of copied merchandise and intellectual property rights	17	6
Issues of historical recognition	35	36
Territorial problems such as theSenkakuIslands	14	29
Other	0	3
None/No answer	13	7

 

Q17.  What is your perception of China as a country?  Please choose as many as apply from the following:  

	Japan	China
Economically affluent	16	33
High technological skills	14	25
Military expansion	56	43
Strongly promoting Chinese traditions and culture	24	58
Protects natural environments	3	30
Safe country	2	33
Other	4	13
None/No answer	17	2

 

Q18.  What is your perception of Japan as a country?  Please choose as many as apply from the following:  

	Japan	China
Economically affluent	33	60
High technological skills	70	60
Military expansion	3	29
Strongly promoting Japanese traditions and culture	17	29
Protects natural environments	19	38
Safe country	39	25
Other	1	5
None/No answer	5	6

 

Q19.  What is your impression of Chinese people? Please choose as many as apply from the following:  

	Japan	China
Diligent	18	73
Generous	7	61
Kind	3	58
Sociable	4	40
Strong sense of patriotism	59	64
Have creativity	10	45
Have clear opinions	46	38
Rational	13	37
Other	2	6
None/No answer	12	1

 

Q20.  What is your impression of Japanese people?  Please choose as many as apply from the following:  

	Japan	China
Diligent	64	43
Generous	19	11
Kind	36	22
Sociable	9	22
Strong sense of patriotism	9	52
Have creativity	11	48
Have clear opinions	4	33
Rational	14	28
Other	1	8
None/No answer	10	10

 

Q21. (Question only to Japanese) From the following list of items that relate to China , please choose as many as you are curious about or interested in:  

	Japan
Music, such as popular music	3
Movies	7
Entertainers	3
Home appliances	6
Chinese cuisine	34
Fashion	2
Chinese language	8
Chinese way of thinking	15
Culture	6
History	34
Famous places/historic sites	26
Herbal medicine	29
Healthy practices, such as tai chi chuan	16
Sports, such as gymnastics and table tennis	12
Handicrafts, such as embroidery	7
Traditional culture, such asBeijingopera	8
Other	0
None/No answer	19

 

Q22.  (Question only to Chinese) From the following list of items that relate to Japan , please choose as many as you are curious about or interested in:  

	China
Television programming	9
Anime, manga (cartoons)	32
Music, such as popular music	6
Movies	11
Entertainers	5
Cars/Motorcycles	43
Home appliances	53
Culture	9
Japanese food	21
Fashion	14
Japanese-style business management	18
Japanese language	11
Japanese way of thinking	16
Television games and computer games	16
Sports such as sumo and baseball	8
Traditional culture, such as Kabuki	13
Other	9
None/No answer	5