deteriorating political relationship between the governments and the mutual perceptions of the
two nations on the one hand, and the development of economic interdependence on the other.
The total economic value of the Japanese-Chinese trade exceeded that of the Japanese-US trade
in 2004. Now it is widely acknowledged in Japan that the China factor is at least one of the
major causes of Japan’s recent economic growth, as seen in the booming of steel and aluminum
industries resulting from China’s construction rush.
Meanwhile, political relations between Japan and China have been increasingly troubled. The
symbolic Yasukuni Shrine issue has caused the suspension of the summit meeting between the
Japanese Prime Minister and the Chinese President for three years until the 2004 APEC meeting
in November. The hiring of prostitutes by Japanese corporate workers in China in September
2003 reignited the sense of humiliation of the Chinese people. The final Asian Cup Soccer game
between the Japanese and Chinese teams held in Beijing in August 2004 and the hostility of the
Chinese fans against the Japanese team and visitors were broadcast in Japan, which substantially
worsened Japanese impressions of the Chinese as well as increased Chinese crimes in Japan,
including the murder of a Japanese family by Chinese “students” in Fukuoka in June 2003.
China’s launching of a manned spaceship was hailed by the Chinese, but it cast a question to
the Japanese about whether Japanese ODA to China is indeed used to improve Chinese people’s
welfare. The Senkaku Islands (called Diaoyu in Chinese) have been an issue of territorial dispute
between the two countries since China began to insist its sovereignty over them after the US
return of administrative rights over the islands to Japan in 1972. Chinese research vessels’
Convention