Media role vital in China-Japan ties
- By Tomoyoshi Isogawa
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China Daily, December 16, 2011
The postponement of Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's visit to China has sparked speculation, especially because the visit would have coincided with the 74th anniversary of the Nanjing massacre. But the true reason, I believe, is that China's important central economic conference has been delayed till this week because of the complexity of the country's domestic economy amid deteriorating European debt crisis.
But it has given us another chance to see how history always plays a big role in Sino-Japanese relations. Bilateral ties have been cold in the past two years more because of disputes, including territorial disputes. According to a public opinion poll that China Daily and the Genron NPO (Japan) conducted earlier this year, only 20.8 percent Japanese have a good impression about China and 28.6 percent Chinese have a good opinion about Japan.
The media in both countries should be encouraged to report about the other with accurate details and all-sided facts. It's true that the Japanese media report a lot about the "problems" of and about China, which is partly damaging China's image in Japan.
But misunderstandings among Chinese and Japanese do exist. Chinese readers, who are perturbed to see critical reports on China in the Japanese media, need to understand that the media in Japan also carry reports that inconvenience the Japanese government almost everyday. The Japanese media carry reports about Japanese political parties and companies, and other countries, including the United States, in the same way.
The rise in negative reports on China is actually the result of China's growing global influence, which even affects Japan more. What is important is that such reports should be as accurate and all-sided as possible, because the media do exert great influence on Japan-China relations. I have made efforts to do so in the past.
I covered the Asian Cup soccer games in China in 2004. The final was between China and Japan. When a section of the Chinese spectators booed the Japanese team, Japanese people back home from angry. We reported the game from a Beijing stadium. Japan's win over China came as a shock to some young Chinese supporters, who got violent at the north and west gates of the stadium and damaged the windows of a Japanese minister's car, which was reported in Japan. I reported the incident, too. But it appeared later in a detailed article which also was full of other facts.
I saw the electronic signboard display, asking the spectators to be good hosts and advising them that "we should treat visitors with courtesy". The spectators who left the stadium through the east gate returned home calmly. A Beijing resident even said that he was ashamed of the spectators' behavior. A local newspaper, Beijing News, carried a big photograph of the Japanese soccer team with words of blessing. And I also reported that the reaction of people in Beijing was totally different from the handful of violent spectators.
In my view, the Chinese media could do the same, or else a big perception gap will be created between Japanese and Chinese people.
People in Japan and China both think the other country is important. According to the China Daily and Japanese NPO poll, 77.6 percent of Japanese and 83.1 percent of Chinese people think the other country is important. And 94.3 percent of the people in Japan and 86.8 percent of their counterparts in China have learned facts about the other country from the media. So it is clear that the media in China and Japan play very important roles in Sino-Japanese relations.
Reporters in both countries should act with responsibility. Only if the reporters are brave enough to report more precisely with all-sided facts, instead of filtering out information according to their likes and dislikes, can people of the two countries narrow their misunderstanding gap.
Furthermore, the media in both countries need to cover more aspects of Sino-Japanese ties. The increase in exchanges between the two countries has given rise to many new phenomena emerging in bilateral relations.
For example, Chinese comprise the largest group of foreigners living in Japan. There are 700,000 or 800,000 Chinese living in Japan. In addition, there are about 100,000 Chinese students in Japan, and the number of students who have found jobs in Japanese companies has increased. This is because Japanese companies require talented people who can play an active part in their businesses in China.
Consequently, more Japanese are getting jobs in China. The number of Japanese students studying the Chinese language has increased rapidly, too. With the advance of globalization, there will be more mixing of people from the two countries in workplaces and beyond.
This new phenomenon is very important, which the media of both countries should pay greater attention to.
Chinese and Japanese will become more tolerant and accommodating with each other if we make these efforts sincerely.
The author is a senior journalist at Asahi Shimbun.
