The Tokyo-Beijing Forum was held in person this week in Japan for the first time since it went virtual during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the two-day forum from December 4 through 5, officials from Japan and China expressed hopes to warm their frosty relations.
Analysts pointed to China sending a higher-level delegation than at past forums as a sign that Beijing wants closer trade ties with Japan.
Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya attended in person, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi addressed the forum via video. Both expressed hopes for improving China-Japan relations, which cooled after Tokyo’s support for Washington’s restricted exports of advanced microchips to China amid its increasingly assertive military, and attacks this year on Japanese citizens living in China.
Huang Wei-hsiu, a project researcher at the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia at the University of Tokyo, told VOA Mandarin the attendance of former Finance Minister of China Lou Jiwei and former Governor of the People's Bank of China Yi Gang was a sign of China's need for better economic relations.
"Because foreign capital has been leaving, raising the level of economic officials’ attendance symbolizes China’s emphasis on the economic field with Japan," he said.
China’s economic growth has been slowing amid a slump in property prices and low domestic demand. Despite a raft of government stimulus measures, economists say it could drop below 5% growth this year.
China is Japan’s top trade partner. In 2022, China exported $178 billion to Japan, while Japan’s exports to China was $135 billion.
The ministry said Japan invested $3.4 billion in China in 2020, the most recent year listed, while China invested half a billion dollars directly in Japan.
Cold at the bottom?
Sachio Nakato, a professor of international relations at Ritsumeikan University, told VOA Mandarin that both sides want to see better relations.
"In this sense, [Japan’s] Prime Minister [Shigeru] Ishiba and [China’s] President Xi [Jinping] have the will to improve relations within the current difficult situations," Nakato said.
However, a joint survey released before the forum by Genron NPO, a Japanese think tank, and state media China International Publishing Group showed the Japanese public generally dislike China, while there is a growing sense of hostility toward Japan among the Chinese public.
"The proportion of Japanese people with a negative view of China has remained consistently above 80% since 2012," Huang said.
"One of the factors contributing to the deterioration of the Japanese people’s views on China is the killing, detention and prosecution against Japanese nationals in China for unknown reasons," said Professor Hiromoto Kaji of Aichi University.
"The Chinese government has not explained or responded on the motives of the perpetrators. Japanese public opinion is growing increasingly distrustful of this uncertainty," Kaji said.
Another factor is China’s restrictions on the import of Japanese food and other products since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident and release of treated water from the nuclear plant. In August 2023, China temporarily banned the import of Japanese food and feed.
The public opinion survey also showed a sharp drop in the number of Chinese who believe that "Japan-China relations are important" — from 60.1% to 26.8%, the first time it ever dropped below 60%.
To address some of the tension and attract more tourist dollars, China in late November resumed 30-day visa-free travel for Japanese visiting China, which had been halted during the pandemic.
But the action is so far temporary and will expire at the end of 2025 if relations between the two countries don’t improve.
