Here’s a shocker — according to a poll conducted at the behest of the Northeast Asia History Foundation, Koreans viewed China and Japan much more negatively than Chinese and Japanese viewed Korea.
59.8% of Koreans believed Sino-Korean relations were poor, a major deterioration from 34.5% in 2007. This compares with 16.4% of Chinese who view the bilateral relationship as poor, up from 6.6% in 2007.
As you’d might imagine, 76.8% of Koreans viewed the Korea-Japan relationship as bad, up from 67.7% in 2007. 50.4% of Japanese, meanwhile, held a similar view of bilateral ties, down from 54.8% in 2007 (read: no more Roh Moo-hyun).
However, Japanese took a decidedly negative view of Sino-Japanese ties, with 75.8% of Japanese saying the bilateral relationship was not good, up from 66% in 2007. Chinese, on the other hand, were significantly more optimistic, with only 37.4% saying Sino-Japanese ties were bad, down greatly from 65.2% in 2007.
What’s even more interesting is that the younger the respondent, the more negative he tended to answer. In Korea, 66.7% of those in their 20s said the Sino-Korean relations hip was bad, compared to 53.7% in their 40s and 53.6% in their 50s and above. The same phenomenon was present in Japan and China. The Northeast Asia Foundation believes this reflects the ethnic nationalism of young netizens and youth insecurities about unemployment.
The survey, conducted by pollsters World Research, was conducted on 500 people each in Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing between Nov 6 and 10.
The Chosun Ilbo added some more details:
Asked about history-related issues that should be resolved most urgently, 85 percent of Korean respondents cited the Dokdo islets. Some 50 percent of Chinese respondents and 55.4 percent of Japanese respondents cited the distortion of facts in history textbooks.
Among Koreans, 96 percent were keenly aware of the Dokdo issue, up from 92.7 percent in 2007. But in Japan interest in the matter is dropping, from 75.2 percent in 2007 to 67.8 percent this year.
Some 63.6 percent of Japanese respondents approved of their prime minister’s visit to the militarist Yasukuni Shrine, up from 48 percent the previous year. But more had been persuaded that the body of water between Korea and Japan should be referred to as both the East Sea and the Sea of Japan, up from 17 percent to 25.6 percent.
I’m surprised awareness of the Dokdo issue in Japan was even that high.
In the Yonhap piece, Yonsei professor Baik Young-seo (who is also cited in the Chosun piece) said the results were influenced by things like harmful Chinese food imports, tensions around the Olympics and hate. Korea’s relatively negative view of its relations with its neighbors reflects a sense of historical victimization, he said, but it could lead to Korea responding to international issues in an emotional way.
No shit?
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Love the Yonsei high intellect.
Relations are negative because of hate.
Nothing gets past the bright lights of Yonsei, eh?
I think that would be because of my translation. Couldn’t come up with anything better at the time. Happens sometimes.
“I think that would be because of my translation. Couldn’t come up with anything better at the time. Happens sometimes.”
I think what the responders meant was “anti-Koreanism” in China.
I’d like to add, just because some think that the relationship with the neighboring countries are not good, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t like their neighbors. And vice versa, just because they think the relationship is pretty good, it doesn’t necessarily mean they like their neighbors. So therefore I believe this is flawed because of the way they threw the question and the conclusions that they drew from.
The poll should have just asked them straight out, do you like or you don’t like, said country. But I do agree that all three countries don’t like each other (my conclusions not based on that poll).
Robert
“I’m surprised awareness of the Dokdo issue in Japan was even that high.”
Most people in Japan have heard about Takeshima/Dokdo, it doesn’t mean they really care. Today I asked a few colleagues, they just shrugged their shoulders, knowing that the ownership won’t change. But it seems they are thankful to Koreans for giving them a good laugh.
The younger generation of Japs have a decidedly different view.
From a psychology point of view, collectivistic societies are rooted in hate for their neighbors. Part of the indoctrination of a collectivistic ideology requires threat of destruction, death etc.
From what I understood the Chinese became an increasingly collectivist society with surrounding countries invading and occupying it while the Japanese derive their collectivistic ideology from the slavery they were escaping in Korea.
I left out the Koreans because they are just complicated in so many ways. Historically rooted in enslaving one another as well as the only parts of the country embracing Confucian principles it makes generating a conclusion regarding them very difficult. Its also one of the reasons why in most psychology studies regarding cultural differences, east vs west cognitive differences etc they are not included.
#5, “The younger generation of Japs have a decidedly different view.”
Good to see that you did not use a slur to describe Japanese people…
#6,
Most societies redirect their inner anxieties against imagined or real outside threats. Since few Southerners now see North Korea as a threat, they turn their attention elsewhere (China and Japan being the two most logical targets for economic and historical reasons).
Younger respondents tend to be more negative in all three countries? Ahhh. I finally understand what the Korean Teachers Union is doing with regards to their history text book policies. They just don’t want Korea to developed a gap in the youth hate race! That explains the crazy cow thing, too. I get it. Thanks, KTU!
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