Photo/Illutration A document released by the Foreign Ministry shows the results of a public opinion survey regarding Emperor Akihito's 1992 visit to China. (Hikaru Uchida)

Overwhelming positive public opinion helped convince then Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa to proceed with the first visit of an emperor to China in 1992.

The never-before-released results of a public survey were included in the diplomatic documents the Foreign Ministry released on Dec. 20.

Two thousand adults were surveyed, with 71.2 percent responding. The poll was conducted in June 1992, about four months before Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko’s scheduled visit to China.

For the question of what they thought about the Chinese invitation to visit on the 20th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations, a combined 72.1 percent of the respondents said they either favored or somewhat favored such a move.

Only 5.8 percent said they were opposed, while another 10.6 percent said they were somewhat opposed.

By gender, 74.6 percent of male respondents were in favor, while 70 percent of female respondents supported the visit.

There was a clear difference of opinion when it came to the age of the respondent.

Among those under 50 who were generally born after World War II, about 80 percent supported the China trip, but that percentage decreased to about 60 percent for those over 60 who were in their teens or older when the war ended.

In another document released by the Foreign Ministry, Miyazawa is quoted as saying in February 1992, “Among the elderly, there is the strong sense that Japan did terrible things to China, and they tend to hold strong apprehension over whether (a China trip) might cause some sort of trouble.”

Among those who were cautious about having Akihito visit China were some who felt he might be asked to take responsibility for Japan’s actions toward China during the war.

Then Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobuo Ishihara explained the results of the public opinion survey to lawmakers of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. The poll found that 72 percent of respondents who said they supported the LDP backed Akihito’s trip to China.

Another document had Ishihara telling the LDP lawmakers that the impression gained was that most respondents supported the trip.

But one document showed disgruntlement among LDP lawmakers who opposed the visit, including Masayuki Fujio, a former education minister.

Fujio said the survey contained no questions that touched upon the territorial dispute with China over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, making it difficult to conclude that a majority of the public supported the trip to China.

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This article is part of a series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry in December 2023.

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