An overwhelming 84 percent of Americans have positive views about Japan, according to a Gallup Inc. survey, as U.S. President Joe Biden hosted Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga for a White House meeting Friday.
The result, released Wednesday, made Japan the most positively rated country in Asia and trails only Canada, Britain and France globally.
"For Biden, Americans' broad, long-standing positive view of Japan primes the U.S. public to view the summit positively," the U.S. analytics firm said, referring to Biden's first in-person talks with a foreign leader since taking office in January.
Americans' positive views for Tokyo are widely shared by demographic groups, with 84 percent of Democrats, 80 percent of Republicans and 86 percent of independents responding to the Feb. 3-18 survey favoring the key U.S. ally in Asia.
For Suga, the summit offers the opportunity to "showcase his rapport with Biden, who may be viewed more positively by the Japanese people than Trump was," the company said, in reference to Biden's predecessor Donald Trump.
By educational attainment levels, respondents with higher education are likelier to see Japan more positively, with 92 percent of those with a college degree saying they favor Japan.
They are followed by those with some college education at 87 percent and 72 percent of those with no more than a high school education.
Eighty-five percent of white Americans favored Japan, while 79 percent of non-white Americans showed a similar response.
All age brackets, split between 18 and 34 and those aged 55 or older, showed positive rates of between 81 percent and 86 percent.
Gallup said majorities of Americans have viewed Japan positively since 1996, when former President Bill Clinton started promoting relations with Japan, including deepening defense cooperation on the back of a rapidly changing security environment in Asia.
Before that, the positive rates were generally lower, possibly because of the U.S. perception about an economic threat Japan posed, as well as a series of disputes over America's military presence in the country, mostly in Okinawa Prefecture.
