BEIJING, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese and Japanese are optimistic about China's economic prospect in spite of the financial crisis, according to a survey released here on Wednesday.

    The survey showed that over half of the participants of the poll expected to see China's further economic growth.

    Jointly sponsored by China Daily and Genron NPO, a Japanese think tank, the survey asked 1,589 lay people from China's five major cities and 1,008 Chinese university students about issues concerning China-Japan relations. A thousand Japanese lay people and 500 academics also took part.

    The survey found perceptions of economic and trade relations between the two countries had improved. About 47.5 percent of ordinary Japanese said China had been "helpful" this year in fighting the global financial crisis. The percentage of Japanese intellectuals who said Chinese economic growth was beneficial to Japan increased to 81.4 percent this year.

    Cooperation on trade, investment and energy top the list of common concerns that people in China and Japan want their leaders to discuss in the bilateral meetings.

    Most respondents from each country said China-Japan relations were "important". Among ordinary Chinese polled, 32.6 percent said they had "very good" or "relatively good" impressions of Japan, and 45.3 percent of Chinese students had a positive impression of Japan.

    An overwhelming majority of the participants attached great importance to governmental and non-governmental exchanges to improve bilateral relations.

    Non-official exchanges were regarded by most people from both countries as an essential way to strengthen relations. About 90.7 percent of the students and 86.2 percent of the ordinary people in China as well as 95.8 percent of Japanese intellectuals and 74.8 percent of the Japanese ordinary citizens viewed it as "important" or "relatively important".

    Chinese and Japanese both learned about each other's country mostly through television news and newspapers, the survey found.

    The China-Japan joint opinion poll, launched in 2005 and conducted each year, aims to facilitate communication and understanding between the two countries.