Anti-Chinese sentiment in Japan

Anti-Chinese sentiment has been present in Japan since at least the Tokugawa period.

Japanese anti-Chinese protest in Shibuya, Tokyo

History

Tokugawa period

From 1600 to 1868, in the Tokugawa period, Japan left a prolonged period of civil war and began to prosper as a unified and stable state.[1] This period saw an attempt to remove foreign influences on Japanese Culture, including Chinese.

During this time, Japan maintained a policy of self-isolation, so its culture developed with very little foreign influence. A cultural movement of the Tokugawa period was a branch of scholarship called kokugaku (国学), literally "National Studies", commonly translated as "Japanese Studies". Practitioners of the movement, or Kokugakushu, would attempt to distinguish genuine Japanese culture from foreign culture,[2] and aimed to revert Japanese culture to one without foreign influence. Their work had a large focus on Shinto,[2] Japan's indigenous religion,[3] as a bulwark against foreign, and especially Confucian and Buddhist influence. However, by that point, Shinto had already been heavily influenced by both Confucianism and Buddhism;[4] the net effect of Kokugaku scholarship is debated. A rise in national self-respect in this time resulted in Japan viewing itself as the centre of a "civilised world surrounded by barbarians."[5]

Empire of Japan
Main article: Empire of Japan

After the Meiji Restoration, Japan perused a policy of aggressive westernisation and industrialisation, and by so doing was able to catch up with the progress of western nations. Meanwhile, China was sinking into a state of deep dysfunction: China began to be perceived as a declining power and the Japan increasingly lost respect for China. Increasing Sinophobic sentiments culminated in Imperial soldiers' atrocities committed against the Chinese during World War II, most notably in the Nanking Massacre. The Second Sino-Japanese War claimed the lives of more than 20 million Chinese, mostly civilian. The property loss suffered by the Chinese was valued at US$383 billion at the currency exchange rate in July 1937, roughly 50 times the GDP Japan at that time (US$7.7 billion).[6]

Post World War II
Unfavorable Views of the People's Republic of China (2009)[7]
Negative views of China are especially strong in Japan, Germany, and France.
Police officers monitor anti-Chinese protests in front of the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo, Japan during the 2012 Senkaku Islands dispute.

Following the end of the World War II, openly Sinophobic sentiments were stifled and became taboo in the mainstream media, even though Japan and the People's Republic of China took opposite sides in the Cold War. Use of the formerly common word Shina (支那; China) has all but disappeared except in a handful of cases, such as the Japanese name for "South China Sea" and an alternative term for ramen.

There was little contact between Japan and the People's Republic of China in the ensuing decades, and little discussion of China until the relationship between the countries was normalised in 1972, when there was a surge of interest in Japan about its neighbour. China renounced reparations for the Second World War, partly to avoid appearing less generous than Taiwan—which had earlier done the same—and to strengthen its position against the Soviet Union. The response was considerable gratitude and goodwill from Japan. Sinophobia was confined to fear of communism. Public animosity toward the People's Republic of China was minimal compared to the public animosity held against the Soviet Union, and a friendly mood prevailed.[8] Improvements were also seen in social attitudes toward ethnic Chinese residents of Japan, along with other minorities such as Zainichi Koreans and Ainu people.

However, since 2000, Japan has seen a gradual resurgence of anti-Chinese sentiments. The sentiments are coupled with the effects of an increasingly tense political relationship between Japan and the People's Republic of China. Many Japanese believe that China is using the issue of the countries' strained history, such as the Japanese history textbook controversies and official visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, both as a diplomatic card and to make Japan a scapegoat in domestic politics.[9] The anti-Japanese riots in the spring of 2005 caused more fear of China within the Japanese public. Many Japanese nationalist groups, such as Ganbare Nippon and Zaitokukai, are anti-Chinese. Anti-Chinese sentiment in Japan has been on a sharp rise since 2002: according to the Pew Global Attitude Project (2008), 85% of Japanese held unfavourable views of China, and 73% held unfavourable views of Chinese people.

See also

References
  1. Tokugawa Period. BookRags. Retrieved on 2008-08-24.
  2. Tokugawa Enlightenment Archived May 27, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  3. Shinto. Japan-guide.com. Retrieved on 2008-08-24.
  4. Ng, Wai-ming. The I Ching in the Shinto Thought of Tokugawa Japan Archived 2017-12-12 at the Wayback Machine. University of Hawaii Press (1998). Retrieved on 2008-08-24.
  5. Kanji Nishio II. Japan's Identity: Is Asia One? Is Japan Part of the East? Archived February 12, 2009, at the Wayback Machine Japan Forum on International Relations. Retrieved on 2008-08-24.
  6. "BBC - History - World Wars: Nuclear Power: The End of the War Against Japan". Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  7. "Home - Indicators Database - Pew Research Center". Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project. 22 April 2010. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  8. "asahi.com : English". Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  9. Matthew Forney, "Why China Loves to Hate Japan". Time Magazine, December 10, 2005. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1139759,00.html, accessed 1 June 2008
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