Stirring Samurai, Disapproving Dragon: Japan's Growing Security Activity and Sino-Japan Relations

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Abstract : relations are often described as an uneasy mix of uniting and dividing issues. Upon the 30-year anniversary of the normalization of Sino-Japanese relations in 2002, Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun noted that many Japanese felt Japan-China relations are at their worst since normalization, while in China an opinion poll showed that half of respondents believed relations with Japan were not good and only 22 percent said relations were good. These indications of poor Sino-Japanese relations take place, curiously, amidst a thriving bilateral economic relationship and a region-wide Chinese peace and reassurance offensive. Observers note that Notwithstanding the close and significant economic interdependence between China and Japan, there is no corresponding spillover into social, intellectual or security engagement, and that intensifying rivalry is crowding out the positive aspects of bilateral ties. There is a growing asymmetry developing between Chinese society, in which young people as well as old remain unwilling to accept Japan as a normal country (largely because the Chinese government has continually published stories of Japanese wartime brutality through the media and education system over the last half century) and Japanese society, in which younger generations born since the end of World War II are decreasingly sympathetic to attempts to constrain Japan due to the history issue. This generational change is reflected in Japan's leadership. Japanese politicians such as Tanaka Kakuei and Nonaka Hiromu, who previously worked with some success to build personal ties with Chinese leaders that helped stabilize the bilateral relationship, are being replaced by the likes of current Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro, who is clearly less averse to angering China. There are many implications of these changes, but one of the most important consequences is that China-Japan security relations will remain tense in the future.

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