Photo courtesy of Yonhap News
Eight out of ten Koreans and six out of ten Japanese people believe that their country should not make concessions to the other country in the historical conflict between Korea and Japan.
According to the results of a joint opinion poll conducted by the Yomiuri Shimbun and the Hankook Ilbo on the 20th and 24th of this month on Korean and Japanese citizens aged 18 and over, ‘Korea and Japan are in conflict over historical issues such as conscription and comfort women. 81.3% of Koreans answered, “I do not think so.” When asked whether they think they should make more concessions than they are now, only 16.2% of the respondents said that Korea should make concessions in historical conflicts.
To the same question, 58% of Japanese respondents said that Japan should not make concessions, and only 32% said they should.
When asked whether they think Korea-Japan relations will improve with the inauguration of the Yun Seok-yeol administration, 52.9% of South Koreans answered “it will get better”, 35.1% said “it will not change,” and 6.2% said “it will get worse”. % appeared.
To the same question, 61% of Japanese people answered “it will not change,” and compared to Koreans, expectations for improvement in Korea-Japan relations were low, while 31% answered that Korea-Japan relations would improve.
Regarding Japan’s strengthening of its defense capabilities, in the case of South Koreans, the opinion that “it is unacceptable” was more than twice as high as that of 61.1%, “it can be tolerated,” compared to 28.4%, who answered “it can be tolerated.”
On the other hand, Japanese people had similar views regarding Korea’s military strengthening, with 46% saying it was “unacceptable” and 42% saying it was “acceptable”.
The effective respondents of this poll, conducted by landline and wireless telephone, were 1,000 Koreans and 1,019 Japanese citizens.