Seoul, May 25 (Jiji Press) — A private-sector survey showed Tuesday that 78.0 pct of South Koreans and 64.7 pct of Japanese want both of their governments to work harder to build cooperative bilateral relations.

Asked what the two governments should work together on, 23.5 pct of South Korean respondents cited joint research projects on historical issues, followed by 21.7 pct who answered trade and commerce, according to the public opinion survey by Seoul-based Korea Economic Research Institute.

To the same question, 23.2 pct of Japanese respondents cited culture, tourism, and exchange projects, followed by 21.0 pct who picked trade and commerce.

Meanwhile, only 16.7 pct of South Koreans have a favorable impression of Japan, while 20.2 pct of Japanese have positive feelings toward South Korea, the survey showed.

The private think tank conducted the survey April 2-11 on a total of 1,431 people comprising almost the same number of South Koreans and Japanese.

The institute also analyzed the impact on trade of wartime labor issues with Japan since a South Korean Supreme Court ruling in October 2018 that ordered a Japanese company to pay compensation to Koreans who worked as laborers for it during World War II.

According to the analysis, South Korea’s trade with Japan in 2019-2020 dropped by 11.9 pct in value from 2017-2018, compared with a 7.6 pct fall in its overall international trade.