SeminarMonday 10 September 2012
6:00pm – 7:45pm
40 Years of Love and Hate: Sino-Japanese Relations Since Diplomatic Normalisation
Drinks reception from 8:45pm
Daiwa Foundation Japan House
Organised by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
The 40th anniversary of the normalisation of Sino-Japanese relations is being marked in both countries with a series of events, exhibitions and cultural exchanges with the objective of promoting a ‘stable and future-oriented’ relationship. Yet public opinion polls regularly suggest that Chinese and Japanese people have a high degree of antipathy to each other. To some Japanese eyes, China has become more assertive against the backdrop of its economic rise, and looks like a potential aggressor. To Western eyes, there seem to be only negative factors and rivalry between the two countries. But they also enjoy cultural exchanges and other positive activities including goodwill visits between the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and the Japanese Self-Defence Forces. Professor Morio Matsumoto, with his decades of experience as a China specialist in the Japanese Foreign Ministry, discussed the multifaceted relationship between the two countries. Professor Caroline Rose considered the widening gap between official attempts to implement pragmatic, forward-thinking policies, and sentiments expressed at popular level, while focusing on the China-Japan relationship from various perspectives, and assessing the extent to which leaders on both sides have been successful in developing a mutually beneficial strategic relationship. The seminar was chaired by Professor Barry Buzan, Emeritus Professor in International Relations at the London School of Economics.
About the contributors
Professor Morio Matsumoto
Professor Morio Matsumoto is Professor, Asia Pacific Studies (International Relations) at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Japan. He has worked in a number of roles as a China specialist in the Asia Pacific Bureau at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (MOFA), including Assistant director, China and Mongolian Division (1989 – 1997) and Director, Division of Japan-China Economic Relations (2006 – 2008). From May 2008 to March 2012, Matsumoto was Consul General, Consulate General of Japan in Shenyang, China. For 16 years Matsumoto acted as a Chinese-Japanese interpreter, accompanying Japanese Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers in meetings and conferences. He also accompanied Japanese Emperor Akihito on his visit China in 1992.
Professor Caroline Rose
Professor Caroline Rose is Professor of Sino-Japanese Relations in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures (East Asian Studies) at the University of Leeds. Her teaching and research focus on Sino-Japanese relations with specific reference to the history problem, various aspects of Japanese and Chinese foreign policy, and Chinese and Japanese history and citizenship education. She has published two monographs on Sino-Japanese relations (both with Routledge), and chapters on such issues as Japan’s relations with Latin America, Japan and China in Africa, and Japanese nationalism. She is currently working on a monograph which considers the impact of education reforms in China and Japan on national identity formation and implications for China-Japan relations.
Professor Barry Buzan (Chair)
Professor Barry Buzan is Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) (formerly Montague Burton Professor), honorary professor at Copenhagen and Jilin Universities, and a Senior Fellow at LSE Ideas. During 1993 he was visiting professor at the International University of Japan, and from 1997-98 he was Olof Palme Visiting Professor in Sweden. In 1998 he was elected a fellow of the British Academy. Among his books are: Security: A New Framework for Analysis (1998, with Ole Wæver and Jaap de Wilde); International Systems in World History: Remaking the Study of International Relations (2000, with Richard Little); Regions and Powers: The Structure of International Security (2003, with Ole Wæver); The Evolution of International Security Studies (2009, with Lene Hansen); and Non-Western International Relations Theory (2010, co-edited with Amitav Acharya).