More than half of Chinese people "do not feel close" to their Japanese neighbors, mostly because Japan has not "seriously reflected" on its military past, according to a survey by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

The report, published by the CASS Institute of Japanese Studies on its website on Monday, says that 31.2 percent "do not feel close" to Japanese and 22.4 percent feel "very much unneighborly."

Of the 53.6 percent with distant or negative feelings, 26 percent said that they felt the way they did because Japan had invaded China, but 61.7 percent said that it was because, after five decades, Japan has still made no serious self-examination of its history.

"Compared with the previous survey, we saw an obvious increase in the percentage of Chinese who feel psychologically distant from Japan, mainly because of the events in Japan that have harmed Chinese feelings in recent years," said Jiang Lifeng, director of the institute.

Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro has visited Yasukuni Shrine, which honors the country's war dead including many WWII war criminals, for four consecutive years.

About 42 percent of those surveyed said Koizumi should never visit the shrine, while 5 percent said it was Japan's own business.

In the first survey conducted by the institute in 2002, 43.3 percent people said they either did not feel close or felt unneighborly with Japan, 10.3 percentage points lower than this year's figure, Jiang said.

And those who felt close or very close with Japan saw a slight growth from 5.9 percent two years ago to 6.3 percent now, the report said.

The institute sampled 3,300 people nationwide in September and October and received 2,987 valid questionnaires. Almost 900 people wrote short notes about Japan and relations between the two countries.

These notes included both criticism of Japan for its past and present behavior and the strong expectation of establishing friendly relations between the neighboring countries, Jiang said.

"There are both great difficulties and high expectations in Sino-Japan relations, which is the reality that the two countries must take seriously," Jiang said.

Most Chinese formed their attitude towards Japan from a historical perspective, some from political and economic concerns and a minority from personal experiences, Jiang said.

Only 0.7 percent of people feeling unneighborly with Japan said that it was because they, their family or their friends had negative experiences of Japan or Japanese people, the report said.

Some 31.2 percent of those feeling neighborly with Japan said it was because Japan has modern technology and a strong economy while 25.3 percent said it was because the two countries have a long history of friendly exchanges.

Others had friends or family members in Japan, had visited Japan or had Japanese friends.

"It is notable that five of those surveyed, all in their 20s, said they did not feel neighborly with Japan because the Japanese looked down on the Chinese. This was not found in the first survey," Jiang said.

(Xinhua News Agency November 30, 2004)