China Japan

A Financial Times “Summer Books” Selection “Will become required reading.” —Times Literary Supplement “Elegantly written...with a confidence that comes from decades of deep research on the topic, illustrating how influence and power have waxed and waned between the two countries.” —Rana Mitter, Financial Times China and Japan have cultural and political connections that stretch back fifteen hundred years, but today their relationship is strained. China’s military buildup deeply worries Japan, while Japan’s brutal occupation of China in World War II remains an open wound. In recent years both countries have insisted that the other side must openly address the flashpoints of the past before relations can improve. Boldly tackling the most contentious chapters in this long and tangled relationship, Ezra Vogel uses the tools of a master historian to examine key turning points in Sino–Japanese history. Gracefully pivoting from past to present, he argues that for the sake of a stable world order, these two Asian giants must reset their relationship. “A sweeping, often fascinating, account...Impressively researched and smoothly written.” —Japan Times “Vogel uses the powerful lens of the past to frame contemporary Chinese–Japanese relations...[He] suggests that over the centuries—across both the imperial and the modern eras—friction has always dominated their relations.” —Sheila A. Smith, Foreign Affairs

China, red or green -- Countering Japan -- Five ragged islands -- The golden years -- Japan says no -- Asian values -- Apologies and their discontents -- Yasukuni respects -- History's cauldron -- The Ampo mafia -- The rise and retreat of great powers -- China lays down the law -- Nationalization -- Creation myths -- Freezing point -- Afterword

Demonstrates the close relation between Japan’s changing international status and the thought process behind this by focusing on the public discussion on China and China politics during the interwar years 1895-1904. Winner of the JaDe Prize 2010 awarded by the German Foundation for the Promotion of Japanese-German Culture and Science Relations

A collaborative effort by scholars from the United States, China, and Japan, this volume focuses on the period 1972–1989, during which all three countries, brought together by a shared geopolitical strategy, established mutual relations with one another despite differences in their histories, values, and perceptions of their own national interest. Although each initially conceived of its political and security relations with the others in bilateral terms, the three in fact came to form an economic and political triangle during the 1970s and 1980s. But this triangle is a strange one whose dynamics are constantly changing. Its corners (the three countries) and its sides (the three bilateral relationships) are unequal, while its overall nature (the capacity of the three to work together) has varied considerably as the economic and strategic positions of the three have changed and post–Cold War tensions and uncertainties have emerged.

Tracing the genesis of the Senkaku Islands in the memoirs of history, and its potential future, in the backdrop of the East China Sea’s brewing dispute, this book chronicles the journey of Sino-Japanese relations in the explicit context of the Senkaku Islands. The evolving power transition dynamics in East Asia render Washington the lynchpin of Tokyo’s diplomatic and security strategy, and vice versa. Conversely, China is abrasively displaying an almost predictable geo-strategic pattern and strategy of enforcing territorial claims across Asia, keeping it just below the threshold of provoking conflict, whilst testing the tenacity of existential status quoist norms. Consequentially, the need to steer Asia towards a regional order that maintains stability in the power equilibrium, thereby challenging a visibly coercive Sino-centric vision of the future Asia, especially within the Indo-Pacific, has become far more manifest than ever before. Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

3 From Asian financial crisis to Jiang Zemin's visit to Japan -- 4 Development of multilateral diplomacy and increase of frictions -- 6 Japan-China relations at the start of the twenty-first century: the rocky path to a strategic mutually beneficial relationship -- 1 From start of the Koizumi administration to start of the Hu Jintao administration -- 2 Yasukuni visit problem and anti-Japanese protests -- 3 Formation, development, and limits of strategic mutually beneficial relations -- 4 Japan-China GDP trading places and Senkaku Islands -- 7 The current state of Japan-China relations: navigating a fragile relationship -- 1 Start of new administrations and stagnation of Japan-China relations -- 2 Political bargaining over Japan-China summit at Beijing APEC -- 3 Japan-China relations 70 years after the war's end -- Guide to further reading in English -- Chronology of key events -- Index -- Index of names

"Based on extensive original research including interviews with key participants, this book examines how, following Richard Nixon's famous visit to China in 1972, Japan established formal diplomatic relations with China, doing so before the United States and other western countries. It considers the key personalities - prime minister Tanaka and foreign minister Ōhira on the Japanese side, and Zhou Enlai on the Chinese side, outlines how the discussions unfolded, and discusses the key issues which divided the two sides and how these issues were resolved: Japanese war reparations to China, how the two countries perceived their past, how Taiwan should be treated, and possession of the Senkaku Islands. The book also shows how Tanaka and Ōhira sought to reconcile China-Japanese relations with the US-Japan Security Treaty and to continue non-governmental exchanges with Taiwan following the severing of relations. Overall, the book emphasises that the nature of the relationship established in 1972 continues to be very important for understanding present day China-Japan relations"--

In international relations today, influence is as essential as military and economic might. Consequently, leaders promote favorable images of the state in order to attract allies and win support for their policies. Jing Sun, an expert on international relations and a former journalist, refers to such soft power campaigns as "charm offensives." Sun focuses on the competition between China and Japan for the allegiance of South Korea, Taiwan, and other states in the region. He finds that, instead of adopting a one-size-fits-all approach, the Chinese and the Japanese deploy customized charm campaigns for each target state, taking into consideration the target's culture, international position, and political values. He then evaluates the effectiveness of individual campaigns from the perspective of the target state, on the basis of public opinion polls, media coverage, and the response from state leaders. A deep, comparative study, Japan and China as Charm Rivalsenriches our understanding of soft power by revealing deliberate image campaign efforts and offering a method for assessing the effectiveness of such charm offensives.

In Inheritance of Loss, anthropologist Yukiko Koga tackles complex questions of how two nations previously at war come to terms with their troubled past. Her site is Northeast China, where Japan s imperial ambitions were pursued to devastating and murderous ends in the twentieth century. There the landscape, which is still peppered with missiles and unexploded chemical weapons from the war, is the backdrop for refurbished imperial architecture and revived Japanese businesses. But the national wounds of China and Japan s history problem cannot be stitched together solely through international trade. The author shows why mutual recognition of wartime atrocities is the only thing that can allay the persistent and sporadically explosive tensions between two of the most powerful countries in the Eastern hemisphere. A milestone in memory studies that incorporates sorely needed attention to materiality and political economy, Inheritance of Loss shows just how crucial imperial legacies will continue to be despite China s and Japan s attempts to leave the past behind in pursuit of a more prosperous future."

Draws on multidisciplinary perspectives to examine from both sides the domestic and international dynamics of the bilateral relationship. Michael Heazle and Nick Knight, Griffith University, Australia.