Eighty-one percent of Taiwanese said Japan is a trustworthy nation, a poll showed, the highest number since the survey was started, the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association said yesterday.
Japan has been the favorite nation among Taiwanese in every iteration of the survey — which has been commissioned eight times since 2008 — and the nation’s approval rating last year reached a historic high of 77 percent, far ahead of 4 percent approval for South Korea, it said.
The US and China both commanded an approval rating of 3 percent as the third-most favored nations among Taiwanese, said the association, which is Japan’s de facto embassy in Taiwan.
Photo: CNA
Eighty-one percent of Taiwanese aged 30 to 39 rated Japan as their favorite country, the highest among all age groups, it said.
Seventy percent of respondents said Taiwan should be most closely aligned with Japan, higher than 13 percent who favored aligning with the US and 11 percent who favored aligning with China, the association said.
Taiwanese who reported feeling a rapport with Japan rose to 81 percent last year, compared with 77 percent in the previous iteration of the survey in 2021, it said.
The share of Taiwanese who identified Japan as the nation with the most influence in Taiwan surged to 30 percent last year, up 17 points from 13 percent in 2021, it said.
By comparison, 48 percent and 19 percent of Taiwanese named the US and China respectively as commanding the most influence, with the latter dipping six points from two years ago, it said.
Seventy-seven percent of Taiwanese said they believe that Taiwan and Japan have good relations, another historical high, with 70 percent reporting that they perceived improving bilateral ties, the association said.
Only 2 percent of respondents said that the relationship between the two nations has declined, it added.
The survey, conducted by Pearson Data in December last year and January, had 1,520 valid samples and a margin of error of 2.75 percentage points.
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