TOKYO, DUBAI: An Arab News poll on Arab attitudes to Japan has highlighted the potential of Tokyo’s role in mediating the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said on Tuesday.

The minister was asked about poll findings that more than 56 percent of Arabs thought Japan would be an ideal mediator for Middle East peace, and had high expectations for Japanese diplomacy.

“The results of the … poll show that the role Japan has played in Middle East peace to date has been well received,” he told a press conference in Tokyo. “Japan thinks that cooperation between Israel and an independent Palestine is very important for realizing peace.”

Motegi said he had spoken recently with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. “He also said he had high expectations of the role Japan can play, so to meet those expectations I want Japan to play a role as far as possible in finding a peaceful solution.”

The YouGov poll commissioned by Arab News was based on online interviews with 3,033 Arabic speakers from 18 Arab countries. Its overall findings were released last month to coincide with the launch in Tokyo of the new Arab News Japan edition, and Saudi-specific findings were published later in Riyadh.

Poll findings related to the UAE were released on Tuesday night at an event in Dubai, hosted at his official residence by Dr. Akima Umezawa, the Consul-General of Japan in the city.

The survey found that 13 percent of UAE residents had visited Japan, by far the highest percentage of the Arab countries polled, in which the average was 4 percent.