THE DILEMMA OF JAPAN'S CULTURAL DIPLOMACY IN CHINA : A CASE STUDY OF JAPANESE MANGA AND ANIME

Sino-Japanese relations during late Koizumi period has been widely considered having dropped to the lowest point since the two countries started normal diplomatic relationship in 1972. As a substitute strategy, cultural diplomacy thus became more important to smooth resentments and strengthen common interests on private citizen's level. This paper's purpose was to look at the outcome of Japan's cultural diplomacy in China, and it paid special attention to results brought by popular cultural flows based on the case of Japanese manga and anime. The paper used questionnaires to find out how Chinese college students connected their favorable opinion of Japanese popular culture to their attitude towards Japan, and the questionnaires were distributed in Shanghai and Harbin. The main result of the paper was that Japan's cultural diplomacy dropped into a dilemma, which meant on one hand it improved Japan's image in Chinese people's mind and on the other hand the Chinese government-led counteraction largely limited its potential power. The main barrier for Japan's cultural diplomacy in China was still historical issue.