The latest joint public opinion poll conducted in Japan and South Korea assessing mutual sentiments has revealed an unexpected rise in positive feelings amongst Japanese people towards South Korea.

The survey was carried out from August to September through a joint project between the Japanese nonprofit organization Genron NPO and the South Korean think tank East Asia Research Institute. The latest poll generated responses from roughly 1,000 Japanese and 1,000 Koreans aged 18 and older, with the results published on October 12.

The survey discovered that about 37.4% of Japanese participants held a "good" impression of South Korea, marking the highest recorded percentage since the joint survey started in 2013. It was indicated that this trend was majorly attributed to Japanese participants' deep interest in South Korean pop culture, coupled with their admiration for South Korea's food and shopping culture.

In contrast, a smaller percentage of South Korean participants, 28.9%, signified that they had a "good" impression of Japan. When questioned on their views of Fumio Kishida, Japan's recently elected Prime Minister, an even smaller number of Koreans, 8.5%, portrayed a favorable impression.

According to Asahi Shimbun, "Regarding perceptions of shared history over Japan’s 1910-45 annexation of the Korean Peninsula, 27.0 percent of the South Korean respondents said issues emanating from this historical period cannot be resolved regardless of the state of cooperation between the two countries. This marked a significant increase from 15.2 percent last year."

The newspaper also revealed, "The survey also found that 68.7 percent of the South Korean respondents were “against” the release of treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. began releasing tons of water into the Pacific Ocean on August 24."