Political rows, ‘genuine fear’ stoke Japan’s distrust of China – and the feeling’s mutual

A survey conducted in Japan and China shows the overwhelming majority of people in both countries have negative views of each other

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Japan’s flag flutters outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in 2018. Photo: Reuters

Published: 9:30am, 4 Dec 2024

Long-standing territorial and political tensions appear to be fuelling the intense mutual dislike between the populations of Japan and China, with one observer tracing the “shift in attitude” among Chinese people to Xi Jinping coming to power in Beijing.

The poor sentiments were highlighted in a poll published on Monday that found 89 per cent of Japanese respondents had a negative view of China, though this was down 3.2 percentage points from a similar survey conducted one year ago.

The research was carried out by the Genron NPO in Japan and the China International Communications Group, with 1,000 people in Japan and 1,500 in China taking part.

Some 87.7 per cent of Chinese held unfavourable opinions of Japan, the survey indicated, up 24.8 percentage points to the highest level since 2013, the year after the Japanese government bought disputed islands in the East China Sea from private owners.

The uninhabited Diaoyu archipelago is claimed by China but presently administered by Japan, which calls them the Senkakus.

The territorial dispute has been a perennial source of friction between the two nations and has been in the news regularly in recent years, with Japanese coastguard ships having confronted Chinese vessels found operating in Japan’s exclusive economic zone around the islands.