China, Japan survey reveals positive attitudes

However, intellectual groups in the two countries have always had friendly feelings toward each other, the report showed.

Friendly feelings between the two countries peaked in 2007, when then Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda broke the icy relations with Beijing.

At that time 64.4 percent of Chinese students and 54.3 percent of Japanese intellectuals said they liked the other nation. The figures touched the lowest point in 2006 at the end of Koizumi's five-year administration.

For geopolitics, common people from both countries and intellectuals in China feel the United States play a more influential role in East Asia. However, elites in Japan have always put more weight on China, with the rate staying above 80 percent since 2008.

"The intellectuals tend to observe things from an overall and long-term perspective and are hence more reliable," said Pang Zhongpeng, a researcher in the Japan Studies Center of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"The general public is easily affected by the sweeping reports in the media. Intellectuals have access to the media too, but they hold their own opinions."

He added that many Japanese intellectuals have visited China, which allowed them a very different perspective of China from that presented in the Japanese media.

News from friends

The poll also shows Japanese intellectuals have their own sources of news from China. One in three Japanese elites seem to have "Chinese friends you can chat with".

A similar survey conducted by Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun and US's Gallup from late November to early December showed that the percentage of Japanese who think China-Japan relations are "not good" declined from 72 to 61, reaching the lowest point when Japan detained a Chinese captain in the waters near Diaoyu Islands in September 2010.

The Japanese showed an increasing recognition of China's importance, with 67 percent of the respondents saying China was important to Japan's economy while only 21 percent thought the US was. And 68 percent predicted China would exert increasing influence in the Asia-Pacific while only 21 percent thought the US will.

On another track, the survey found that, despite the ups and downs in bilateral ties, the Chinese public all along maintained an optimistic view of future relations with Tokyo.

Japanese civilians, however, tend to be conservative on the issue, with one third of the interviewees believing Japan-China ties will remain as before.

From 2005 to 2008, the misgivings between China and Japan were mostly caused by historic issues, the report said, referring to a series of disputes related to Japan's invasion into China from 1937 to 1945 and the Japanese administration's reluctance to acknowledge the extent of the damage done.