TOKYO, March 29 - Nearly four in five Japanese believe Japan and China should improve bilateral ties, chilled by disputes including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to a Tokyo war shrine, according to a survey released by Japan's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday.

Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi listens to a question from an opposition at an Upper House budget committee session of parliament in Tokyo March 17, 2006. [Reuters]

Relations between the two Asian powers are at their worst state in decades, chilled by disputes including Koizumi's pilgrimages to Yasukuni Shrine, which are widely seen as a symbol of Japan's past militarism because it honours convicted war criminals along with the country's war dead.

A nationwide survey of 2,000 voters conducted by the Foreign Ministry on February 10-13 found that 77.9 percent of the respondents believe Tokyo and Beijing should improve bilateral ties.

It did not say what steps the two countries should take to improve ties.

Nearly half the respondents, or 46.5 percent, said they thought Sino-Japanese ties would improve in the next 20 years, the poll said.

Only 10.7 percent said they thought relations would grow worse, it showed.

Bitter memories linger in China of Japan's invasion and occupation of parts of the nation before and during World War Two, and ties have deteriorated sharply since Koizumi took office in 2001 and began his annual visits to the shrine.

China has repeatedly said the Yasukuni visits are one of the biggest blocks to better relations.

Koizumi criticised China's stance on Monday, saying the shrine issue should not stand in the way of summit meetings between the two nations.

He said he advocates friendly relations with China and repeated earlier statements that he visits Yasukuni to pray for peace.

Several Japanese groups promoting Japan-China friendship plan to travel to China later this week in an effort to warm bilateral ties.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, who heads one of the groups, will be among the 27 people taking part in the visit, which includes a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao which Japanese media say will take place on Friday.