More than 90 percent of Chinese and Japanese people have unfavorable feelings toward each other, a poll showed.

China Daily and Genron NPO, a Japanese nonprofit think tank, unveiled their joint survey of 1,000 Japanese and 1,540 Chinese conducted between June and July, Yonhap News reported.

According to the annual poll, 92.8 percent of those surveyed in China replied that they harbor unfavorable opinions of Japan, an increase of 28.3 percentage points from last year.

Among Japanese respondents, 90.1 percent showed similar views about China, up 5.8 points over the past year.

The figures of negative sentiment in both countries were the highest since the annual survey started in 2005.

As for the reason, 77.6 percent of Chinese and 53.2 percent of Japanese respondents cited territorial disputes over a set of islands controlled by Tokyo but claimed by both countries, called in Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

Asked about the possibility of military conflicts, 52.7 percent of Chinese and 23.7 percent of Japanese replied positively.

In July, the Pew Research Center unveiled a survey that showed rising anti-Japan sentiment among Koreans and Chinese.

The survey conducted in March and April said 74 percent of Chinese respondents have a “very unfavorable” opinion of Japan, up 40 points from the previous survey in 2008. The figure among South Koreans was 38 percent, up 25 points.

Including those who said they have a “somewhat unfavorable” opinion of Japan, the rate in China stood at 90 percent, while that in South Korea was 77 percent.

“One reason for such anti-Japan sentiment in China and South Korea may be because neither the Chinese nor the Koreans believe Japan has sufficiently apologized for its military actions in the 1930s and 1940s,” the report said.

In contrast, about half or more of the public in other Asia-Pacific countries surveyed said they view Japan favorably, with the figure at 80 percent among Malaysians.

The report also showed 79 percent of Indonesians, 78 percent of Australians and Filipinos, and 51 percent of Pakistanis see Japan in a positive light.

(From news reports )