Exactly 79 percent of respondents from both Japan and South Korea have shown an optimistic view on future relations between Korea and Japan, the highest positive ratio since 1996. According to a poll, conducted two or three days after the World Cup by both Korea's Dongah Il-bo and Japan's Asahi Shinbun, 79 percent of respondents from the two nation gave positive predictions on future relations of the two neighboring countries, who have long kept each other at arm's length. Positive versus negative feelings about future relations once dipped down to 48 percent in 1996, when Japanese textbook and Yasukunu shrine issues surfaced.