Nearly 70 pct. of Japanese say Dokdo is Japan`s: poll

A recent survey suggests that nearly 70 percent of the Japanese people consider Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo as Japanese territory.

A similar percentage of them say the Senkaku Islands, which is under Japan’s effective control but are also claimed by China, are also theirs, suggesting a weak perception of territorial awareness on their part.

Kim Mi-gyeong, a professor at the Hiroshima Peace Institute of Hiroshima City University, on Thursday said she surveyed 440 Japanese citizens in Shimane, Oita and Hiroshima prefectures and students at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University twice, once in April and the other time between August and November last year.

The poll found that 67 percent considered Takeshima, the Japanese name for Dokdo, as Japanese territory. Just 2 percent said otherwise and 27 percent said they did not know.

In July 2011, the Japanese daily Sankei Shimbun said 90 percent of Japanese high school students thought Takeshima was not Japanese territory, but a bilateral diplomatic row over Dokdo following Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s visit to the islets in August last year apparently raised the Japanese public`s awareness of the dispute.

In Kim`s survey, 91 percent said they heard of the Dokdo dispute mostly through TV and newspapers, and about 76 percent said they know where Takeshima was located.

In the same surveys, 69 percent said the Senkaku Islands, which are called Diaoyu in China, were Japanese territory, higher than the 67 percent who considered Dokdo Japanese territory. About 96 percent said they heard of the Senkaku dispute.

lovesong@donga.com