Because China

[JasonJ]

Fair enough post but give me some time, lots of stuff to say about the media in Japan in order to address that, it'll take a big post..

[JasonJ]

There are many problems with the general tone implied by the choice of words of the headline. Some of those articles are quite long and eventually get to the troublesome parts on the part of media, or more specifically, Asahi which is the media outlet singled out more than any other. A major mistake that is advanced is that these reports are reducing the situation to Abe vs the media when it is really mostly Abe vs Asahi. So then is it really Abe trying to muzzle Asahi for being to critical? Or might it be something else that many other media outlets won't dare say.. that Asahi has gone too far with reporting false information?

 

The NYT article has a lot of text about Mr. Kogo being put under pressure and how he suddenly left, announcing it on TV, because of such pressure. Here is a video of when he announced his leaving at 0:13 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi45oZSzjv4. Kogo is on the right. The man on the left is Furutachi, also Asahi and got pressured to leave as mentioned in a linked article in the FP article. Back to the NYT article, what is absent throughout the article is the reporting that he has done and the context it was made in, except for an example provided about Abe's handling of Japanese held hostages in Syria, but still doesn't go into what Kogo actually said. There was a TN thread made about the two Japanese hostages, one being Kenji Goto, but the search engine fails me, I can't elaborate it effectively right now so as not able to judge whether or not Mr. Kogo was being excessively critical, although he did a holding of a sign gimmick which read "I'm not Abe" which I would say it way too simple for swinging people to think against the Abe administration. Leave the opinion making matters to actual content, not catch phrase attempts. But a more critical area not touched on in the NYT article was time when the Japanese government was working to pass new defense laws based on the concept of "Collective Self-Defense" first enabled by the reinterpretation of the constitution in 2014. Here is a 2014 piece by Mr. Kogo about how Abe planned on making Japan a war country and no where in it does it consider China or North Korea, thus a totally biased piece against the Abe government on an extraordinarily important geopolitical matter. So in other words, Mr. Kogo is very left wing that had a very big microphone.

 

The FP article emphasizes independent media under attack. But is Asahi really independent is the question that needs to be addressed. Structurally independent from the government yes, But that could imply that other Japanese media stations are structurally part of the government which is nonsense. If independent is supposed to mean a fair an unbiased media that criticizes the government within that realm, then Asahi is not independent because it often does not provide the general full context. At least the FP article notes that there has been nothing like the kidnapping of Journalists. But overall, like the NYT article, it runs short on actual examples that would make it possible to judge whether or not Asahi has gone too far. It mentions Fukushima coverage by Asahi a little, I can't comment on that because I haven't paid so much attention to it. I assume the Abe government was hush about something on it and can conceive a point, but to be will informed on it might require to go into neclear techie stuff in the Japanese language. For the past years, I considered tackling it, but never found the time for it. But FP mentions another one of Asahi, the comfort women, and FP is very brief on it. The comfort women issue is a huge issue because at the time the ROK Park president was making satisfaction of the comfort issue a requirement for Japan-ROK relations, so the comfort women issue was literally propelled to the top level of diplomatic relations with Japan's geographically closest neighbor, ROK, whose relations will have a big impact on economics, North Korea, China, trilateral military relations with the US. But the FP article addressed the comfort women portion with

 

...What it lacked in investigative prowess, the liberal Asahi had tried to make up for in editorial spunk, opposing the revisionist right’s efforts to whitewash sordid aspects of Japan’s World War II-era history like the “comfort women” forced to work in military brothels.

But in August 2014, the Asahi pulled back from both its comfort women coverage and its investigations into Fukushima following harsh right-wing attacks, led by Abe himself, on missteps in some of its articles. On Oct. 3, 2014, Abe attacked the Asahi for damaging Japan’s reputation after the newspaper belatedly admitted that more than a dozen stories published a quarter-century ago about comfort women had been based on the sourcing of a discredited Japanese army veteran. “It is a fact that its misreporting has caused numerous people to feel hurt, sorrow, suffering, and outrage,” Abe told the lower house budget committee. “It has caused great damage to Japan’s image.”

...

 

The FP article with that portion above makes it sound like the right wingers beat Asahi senseless in order to admit it doing something wrong for still a good cause. Asahi was literally feeding incorrect information about Japan and was putting the Abe government in a very difficult position with an unreasonably unforgiving ROK government and people.

 

Times have changed.. Japan is no longer living in a safe neighborhood where its reporters can freely criticize the government to an extent in which the Prime minster is changing every year as a result (2006-2012). Media has responsibility to oblige by too. While governments, even democratic ones, are still the force that exercises authority over the people, thus it is good if the people can rip into the government, even if going trollish, as that indicated the lax control of the instrument of terror (i.e. government). But it is also only the government that can assemble and use properly armed forces and other security matters for the country. Japan's neighborhood has become too dangerous for the government to always by beaten down by the people lacking the basic concepts of national security and failing to realize the new security environment. So Asahi needed to be taken down a notch IMO. I think calling it "muzzling Asahi" is not fair because it implies that Asahi has done nothing wrong in its reporting. Asahi still remains fully active.

 

Asahi (and outside western media, ROK media too for that matter) never portrayed the full case with the comfort women. After Asahi got hit hard and finally retracted the articles that projected the said fabricated comfort women stories as facts, broadcast media did put out some debates between "Japan apologized enough" and "Japan hasn't apologized enough". Here are two debates. The first one is with a right winger (who is also an American having made lots of Japanese books). It comes after the so-called December 2015 landmark agreement between Japan and ROK to finally an irreversible resolve the comfort women issue (which of course has not happened). Well anyway, that debate here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSoIydPASqM Since it is all Japanese, to gauge the American, an English video of him talking about the general same topic (for those that want to waste time though yeah), although that debate goes much longer and shows how comfort women issue is dragging on other important shared issues such as security in partnership with the US. Another debate, same woman that argued for "Japan hasn't apologized enough" and a Japanese historian here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74wbauxydTc

Again the debate is all Japanese, so some English of the historian here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1XtbyXGXQ0 Here is a wiki (only Japanese or Korean) on the woman for those that have time to kill trying to google translate it: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%87%91%E6%85%B6%E7%8F%A0

 

 

The October 2016 CJR also mentions the Fukushima and Comfort Women parts by Asahi. For the comfort women part it goes as

 

...That uproar began on Aug. 5, 2014 when the Asahi suddenly announced in a front-page article that it was retracting more than a dozen stories published in the 1980s and early 1990s about “comfort women” forced to work in wartime Japanese military brothels. The newspaper was belatedly admitting what historians knew: that a Japanese war veteran quoted in the articles, Seiji Yoshida, had fabricated his claims of having forcibly rounded up more than 1,000 Korean women.

The comfort women retractions appeared to be an attempt by the Asahi to preempt critics in the administration by coming clean about a decades-old problem. Instead, the move backfired, giving the revisionist right ammunition to attack the Asahi. The public pillorying, led by Abe himself, who said the reporting “has caused great damage to Japan’s image,” grew so intense that the magazine of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan ran a cover story: “Sink the Asahi!”

...

 

Ultimately, I think these articles are trying to defend the Asahi in order to defend the basic pillars of journalism that is free from government control. In these examples, they are playing down the impact of the comfort women part, and around that part is the many paragraphs of pressure against the media/Asahi, so it feels too biased for Asahi. And again, what is totally absent is the entire context of the situation. They are defending Asahi as if "I'm not Abe" is high quality journalism. And the other Japanese media such as Sankei or Yomiura, are labeled as "right wing" with the negative history-denier-on-a-war path tone. Does that mean that those left wing media stations like Asahi should be shut down. Of course not, and they haven't. But pragmatically speaking, the cost of keeping Asahi reporting as it was doing was growing great with dire consequences, should the new defense laws fail to pass because of a population eating too much Asahi cornflakes for breakfast. Where would the security of the Asia-Pacific be if Japan had not successfully passed the new defense laws?

 

Finally is that UN report by David Kaye. He also went to a press conference in Japan on the last day of his visit for making that work. Pretty much the same complaints as I have stated concerning the above news articles, not enough consideration to the context of the situation and not enough attention to the actual false facts being presented as truth in media, particularly by Asahi. He does still give a considerable amount of positive credit to Japan's overall degree of freedom of the press and speech in the realms of broadcast media, print media, and online, positive credit that is obviously not reflected in those news articles even though some of them quote the UN report. So he gives the cridet while voicing concerns. Ultimately, there is nothing wrong with expressing concerns in a trend. The practice of putting pressure on some journalists is a concern. Could the practice continue on further? Could there be a next step? Yes it is a concern. Something a little contradictory in part of his report was stating how the Japanese Broadcast Act ensures the press freedom from regulation thus concluding that the government is coming up close to violating it. But at the same time, article 4 has the following points:

 

(i)　it must not negatively influence public safety or good morals;

(ii)　it must be politically fair;

(iii)　reporting must not distort the facts; and

(iv)　it must clarify the points at issue from as many angles as possible where there are conflicting opinions concerning an issue.

 

At the press conference, Kaye even mentions article 4 but doesn't really take it up to the point that it should be taken up to. Has Asahi not violated article 4? I think it has. Although his UN report concludes on page 7 that it is not up to the government but up to self-regulation to determine that. Even so, the right to self-regulation is increasing geopolitcal costs. But that is probably outside the purposes of the UN report. But still I would weigh media's failure to follow article 4 for the past 25 years (as far as comfort is concerned) as enough is enough IMO.

 

On page 15 of the report, it goes into hate speech and discrimination, particularly towards ethnic Koreans in the year 2014-2016 years. I think it would have been helpful to go into the cause, again was the unsolvable stance on the comfort women issue. The general sentiment of Japan towards ROK has been a rocky rode, with positive increases due to the Korean wave of culture, fashion, a and music, to the downfall because of the comfort women. I went at length about this in Part 1 (4) in this post. But the UN report continues and notes the efforts made to bring down the hate speech such as the passing of the Hate Speech Act in May 2016.

Edited September 1, 2018 by JasonJ

[Nobu]

So Asahi needed to be taken down a notch IMO. I think calling it "muzzling Asahi" is not fair because it implies that Asahi has done nothing wrong in its reporting. Asahi still remains fully active.

 

We are going to have to disagree on this one. I stand by my statement that "Abe has been trying to muzzle Asahi in various ways" and believe it to be quite fair.

 

Attempting to muzzle something, whether successfully or not, does not usually result in the killing of it. I would classify Abe's attempts to muzzle Asahi as partially successful.

[DB]

Brr.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-45426882

 

Bear in mind that Facebook uses a scoring system to monitor the social behaviour of "some" users.

 

At least it doesn't make anyone actually disappear.

[Ssnake]

...for now.

[JasonJ]

BBC report about the growth of Uyghur detention centers. Also worth considering the comment section.

Edited October 29, 2018 by JasonJ

[Mr King]

Worst China (Taiwan) funeral strippers

 

 

NSFW

 

These gals look like a lot of fun

[JasonJ]

Taiwan isn't a China.

 

KMT take over of the island was a result of being on the ally side. CKS was not welcomed and his Chinese faction was not welcomed. Thus CKS committed massacre and followed with a witch hunt in order to implant his China into the island with the goal of taken back the rest of the mainland. Thus it is not a case of Formosa being liberated but rather Formosa being given to a previous foreign power. Thus taking away a chance for the island to become self rule. The KMT's defeat in the China Civil War resulted in KMT's territory being reduced to nothing except principally Formosa thus presenting a false image of self-island rule.

 

It is today's geopolitics (One China Policy) and economics that keep the KMT legacy as official status alive. Only 10% of the population consider themselves as "Chinese". Another 10 or so percent consider themselves as "Chinese and Taiwanese". the Rest of the 75 to 80 percent of the population consider themselves as "Taiwanese". It goes strongly in contrast with Korea in which Koreans in both Koreas on the peninsula identify themselves as Korean by 100%.

 

Taiwan has a long history of being controlled by foreigners. And the first foreign power to do so was not even China, but were the Dutch and Spanish. The Chinese first came in to Formosa as a result of a war between Manchus (later the Qing) and the Ming Dynasty in China. One faction was losing (the Ming) and they retreated off the mainland and to Formosa, kicking out the Spanish and Dutch in the process. The winning faction (Qing) followed behind and some years later, invaded Formosa to exterminate the Ming and kept a presence on Formosa afterwards, full of rebellion and crackdowns ensured. Later the Qing loses to Imperial Japan thus Formosa passes from Qing to Imperial Japan. Imperial Japan lost in WW2 and unconditional terms resulted in the territorial loss of Formosa. CKS was an ally so he got Formosa.

Edited November 18, 2018 by JasonJ

[toysoldier]

You just bummed a post about strippers

[JasonJ]

Can be considered as going off topic within reason, if it helps

NSFW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebcWvD9sv78

[Nobu]

Taiwanese/Nationalist Chinese/Whateverese passports are stamped "Republic of China" on their covers in both English and Chinese, presumably to ensure no doubt exists as to the nationality of their bearers.

[JasonJ]

Some have used stickers to replace those words.

 

https://www.hongkongfp.com/2016/02/29/two-with-republic-of-taiwan-passport-stickers-denied-entry-to-hong-kong/

[Mr King]

Taiwan isn't a China.

 

 

Relax, it's a meme.

[JasonJ]

Incidentally, recently there was a baseball game between Japan and Taiwan in which Taiwan was listed as just that "Taiwan" in the scoreboard. There's hope in Taiwan that in the coming 2020 Olympics to be hosted in Japan that they will not be listed as "Chinese Taipei" Seeing their team being listed as "Taiwan" rather than some political appeasing title for PRC on the TV screen got their attention.

 

At the bottom:

台湾　Taiwan

日本　Japan

https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3570783

[Panzermann]

https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/16/chinas-orwellian-social-credit-score-isnt-real/

 

 

the social karma system looks like a powerpoint success story. It always works in the presentation.

[Murph]

Taiwan should declare it is no longer part of china, and call itself the Taiwanese Republic. The ROC will not take China back, and the PRC needs to come to reality.

[toysoldier]

Jeebus.

[JasonJ]

School uniforms to get chips that send data to the school system as to where the kids go and the school uses facial recognition cameras.

 

 

 

某所中学校门口，学生离校的过程中，伴随着“本校生、非本校生”的语音播报。小编前往经过一番询问，得知学生们穿的校服非同一般，校服名为“智能校服”。

智能校服是一家名为“贵州冠宇科技有限公司”的科创企业经过两年时间专注研发，2017年7月作为全国首家正式推出上市的智能科技产品。

近年来人工智能，科技技术飞速发展，大数据等信息技术在教育行业应用的日益广泛，贵州冠宇科技随着物联网技术的落地实现，实现校园管理更加智能，校园生活更加便捷，校园安全更有保障的为基础。

如今，智能科技的智能校服已成为现实且落地使用，对学生运用更加安全可靠的数字化管理。

贵州冠宇科技将智能运用于校服，与传统校服相结合，家长、学校通过智能校服对学生的学习、安全、生活、在校轨迹、身份信息进行实时监护与认证，

学生是否在校，何时离校，学生是否逃课、迟到、夜不归宿等，这是一直以来学校家长十分关注的问题。

由此，学校建立一个全面、高效、人性化、智能化、安全化的考勤管理系统非常必要。智能考勤，相比较采取固有的“人防”方式，智能化考勤管理，更有效保证校园管理者及家长对学生的有力监护。

智能校服当学生离校出校时，门卫室高清大屏识别显示学生人脸身份信息，自动语音播报本校生、非本校生，住校生、走读生，识别学生身份信息，加强学生安全管理防护。

学生每天进出学校精确到分秒的时间以及20秒实时视频，系统自动实时推送至家长手机，掌握学生轨迹。系统自动统计并生成学生考勤文档，教师只需从后台导出查看本班学生出勤数据，对学生进行智能化管理。

学校教师与家长的沟通平台更多来自于微信家长群，在各位教师家长的演绎中，如今微信家长群常常登上头条新闻引发热议？

微信家长群里，教师发布的有用信息频遭刷频淹没，家长随身携带“放大镜”捕捉细节，无限放大传播等等事件发生。微信家长群建立时为了家长与学校沟通联系的通道，过度使用后却成了家长和老师们隐形的负担困扰。

智能校服中“云上智慧校园”APP净化成千上万的微信群消息，搭建有效沟通平台，解决家长老师存在已久的困扰。

教师在云上智慧校园教师版APP发布班级动态、家庭作业、考试成绩、班级通知等信息，审批学生请假，班级消息该班家长接收，不再有刷屏覆盖的困扰。

课后上传随堂课件或视频，便于学生课后复习查看，上传时可选择本班，本校或自定义区域三种方式。共享教育资源，从而达到全国教育均衡化的国家发展号召，跨越班班通，实现校校通。

智能校服+手机APP“云上智慧校园”完美结合，手机APP既方便学生家长及时了解学生动态，又方便了老师与家长的信息交流。不但可以发消息，交流解决教学管理问题，还强化学生的课后学习，促使学生再深层次学习交流。

贵州冠宇科技为校园开启了大数据+物联网数字化运用的智慧校园时代，不仅为家长、老师对学生的位置、安全以及身份识别实现及时监护和认证，功能的应用为校园安全增添了有力的屏障，提升了学校信息化水平。

智能校服投入市场近一年以来，已落地投入使用于全国十多所中小学院校，智能校服结合云平台的自身应用、平台优势等技术优势，不断通过测试产品和用户服务，与全国各地加盟商、代理商及学校开展合作，并在其中一些地区做出了智慧校园的标杆，获得众多荣誉证书。

贵州冠宇科技作为智能校服的首开发者，智慧校园的建设者，一直努力共同推动中国智慧校园建设的发展。学生的成长和安全历来是家长和学校管理中的重中之重，对学生提供安全保障，智能校服取代传统校服，安全高效的优势成为首选。

未来，贵州冠宇科技将携手更多的教育伙伴一起推进智慧校园教育建设，拥抱智慧教育新时代，谱写教育改革新篇章。

http://tech.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201812/18/WS5c189bf4a31097237248e692.html?open_source=weibo_search

 

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8056887/china-tracking-chips-school-uniforms/

 

And since we lack pro-China posters to provide a back and fourth discussion..

https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/china-puts-tracking-chips-in-school-uniforms-to-watch-pupils-every-move.593351/

[Nobu]

Taiwan should declare it is no longer part of china, and call itself the Taiwanese Republic.

 

I am not optimistic about Taiwanese/Nationalist Chinese/Whateverese being anywhere near doing so, as shown by their 2018 midterm elections 6 weeks ago in which the Nationalist Chinese Kuomintang Party won shocking gains.

 

A good indicator of Taiwanese/Nationalist Chinese intent to really want to declare they are not actually Chinese would be for them to remove the words "Republic of China" from their passports, withdraw their China-based claims in the South China Sea including their airbase on Itu Aba in the Spratleys, and renounce their claims to Japanese-owned Senkaku.

 

That they have not made any effort to do any of these under the administration of Ing-wen is of interest in various ways.

Edited January 4, 2019 by Nobu

[toysoldier]

All the Chinas and all the Koreas hate Japan more than each other Conceding anything ti Japan is the last thing they'll do

[JasonJ]

Taiwan should declare it is no longer part of china, and call itself the Taiwanese Republic.

 

I am not optimistic about Taiwanese/Nationalist Chinese/Whateverese being anywhere near doing so, as the latest mixed signals from their 2018 midterm elections 6 weeks ago in which the Nationalist Chinese Kuomintang Party won shocking gains.

 

A good indicator of Taiwanese/Nationalist Chinese intent to really want to declare they are not actually Chinese would be for them to remove the words "Republic of China" from their passports, withdraw their China-based claims in the South China Sea including their airbase on Itu Aba in the Spratleys, and renounce their claims to Japanese-owned Senkaku.

 

That they have not made any effort to do any of these under the administration of Ing-wen is of interest in various ways.

 

Some DPP loses in the midterm election was expected since president Tsai had low popularity for quite a while. She won the presidential election on a strong voice of independence and Taiwanese identity. But pragmatism meant that she couldn't fulfill that. So that disappointed much of her voter base. But by only going halfway with the Independence sentiment in her policies, it still made cross strait relations with China bad and it had an economic affect on Taiwan. So people were also upset about economic reasons. So the KMT won a lot of seats in the midterm election although by definition, the KMT still hold itself to be the "rightful" China. Of course I suspect party membership of the KMT is likely more split along perhaps up to four groups of people that are politically driven pro-CCP China, politically driven pro-KMT China, and economically driven don't care so much which China. And I suspect the 3rd sub group to be fairly big. It should be considered that there is a are openly pro-CCP China political party in China but they are very tiny and so they tend to get on the band wagon with the KMT. The fourth group seems to be a group of small Taiwanese indigenous people that aren't really onboard with DPP and other DPP like parties that tend to be Japan friendly. It seems to be that the KMT has developed a working relationship over the decades and a degree of trust with these small indigenous people groups and so they go with KMT on that basis. My guess would be that such indigenous groups are not going to be pro-CCP China. One other thing that should be noted is that the number of independents in Taiwan is quite high, even rivaling the size of even the KMT and DPP at the local level. So while the DDP defeat has been disappointing, it may have served the DPP right. The KMT is not as pro-CCP China as has been made out to be, particularly by CCP China itself. But CCP China still calls it as it is since well, it is still a tug away from the direction of the DPP.

[Nobu]

The converse also is true regarding the true feeling of Japanese toward Chinese and Koreans.

 

This was not always the case as recently as 1972, at least with the Chinese, when Tokyo and Beijing were able to come together, and Japan was able to trade this:

 

The Government of the People's Republic of China reiterates that Taiwan is an inalienable part of the territory of the People's Republic of China. The Government of Japan fully understands and respects this stand of the Government of the People's Republic of China, and it firmly maintains its stand under Article 8 of the Potsdam Proclamation

 

for this:

 

The Government of the People's Republic of China declares that in the interest of the friendship between the Chinese and the Japanese peoples, it renounces its demand for war reparations from Japan

 

Considering how many Chinese civilians were killed as a result of Imperial General Headquarters Order No. 575 in the IJA's North China Area Army area of operations alone, this was probably a fortunate understanding to reach for Tokyo in various ways.

Edited January 4, 2019 by Nobu

[JasonJ]

The converse also is true regarding the true feeling of Japanese toward Chinese and Koreans.

 

This was not always the case as recently as 1972, at least with the Chinese, when Tokyo and Beijing were able to come together, and Japan was able to trade this:

 

The Government of the People's Republic of China reiterates that Taiwan is an inalienable part of the territory of the People's Republic of China. The Government of Japan fully understands and respects this stand of the Government of the People's Republic of China, and it firmly maintains its stand under Article 8 of the Potsdam Proclamation

 

for this:

 

The Government of the People's Republic of China declares that in the interest of the friendship between the Chinese and the Japanese peoples, it renounces its demand for war reparations from Japan

 

Considering how many Chinese civilians were killed as a result of Imperial General Headquarters Order No. 575 in the IJA's North China Area Army area of operations alone, this was probably a fortunate understanding to reach for Tokyo in various ways.

 

Speak for yourself

 

The reductionist disposition claiming that both sides "hate each other 'cause of history n racism" is really not helpful. Of course both factors exists. But the relationship has been rather dynamic and effected by today's geopolitics.

 

Here are two graphs from a recently published (Dec 2018) government survey that was carried out in October of that year. The years that are boxed are just indicating the highest and lowest point for each measure.

 

 

A blahblah wall attempting to described the dynamic of the ups and downs is in an older post about an older survey of the series. I'm just going to copy/paste the same text here since it is kind of buried in that old post and more or less my view today hasn't changed much.

Towards China

 

 

Next is a graph showing the subtotals of "feels friendly" in a solid line and "doesn't feel friendly" in a dotted line since 1978. Feelings were on a good raise since 1978 and were rather quite good during the 1980s. During this period was when China was opening up and China was not blasted so much anti-Japanese propaganda. Instead, they ran Japanese programs and such. It was a period of looking forward. That ended in 1989, without doubt because of the Tiananmen square massacre. Since then, anti-Japanese propaganda started blasting a lot to help the CCP save face. However during the 1990s, the Japanese poured in lots of investment into China. So some optimism for business. And with Japanese economy entering into stagnation, they probably didn't mind putting up with the propaganda for the economics and business. Perhaps they also felt that at some point, the anti-Japanese propaganda would wear out once the CCP would have felt it recovered loss of face from Tiananmen Square. This level of feelings lasted until 2003 from which point, it dropped. Growing skepticism in China maybe. The Golden Shield Project also called the Great Firewall of China began operation in Nov 2003, a month after this 2003 opinion poll.

 

Pretty big improvement for 2009 but still not returning to 2003 level, but then a massive drop in 2010. 2010 was when the Chinese fishing trawler boat rammed a Japanese Coast Guard ship in the Senkaku island waters and China demanded an apology from Japan for arresting the crew. 2011 saw an improvement. Maybe a mix of getting over the boat ramming and any appreciation for Chinese help for the Tsunami. 2012 saw a massive drop again. Sept 2012 was when the Japanese government nationalized the Senkaku islands by purchasing them from the Kurihara family. The Chinese response was anger including the destruction of Japanese shops and goods in China in protests. 2014 saw Chinese man-made island construction and the Japanese reinterpretation of the constitution, enabling the "collective self-defense". Recent years saw the lowest point since the late 1970s, and very low indeed. Anyway, to the graph..

 

Towards ROK

 

Next is a graph showing the subtotals of "feels friendly" in a solid line and "doesn't feel friendly" in a dotted line since 1978. Feelings towards South Korea improved since 2000 and in 2002, both Japan and South Korea jointly held the FIFA World Cup, so that probably help propel further improvement. It dropped in 2006, not sure why. But since then there is tremendous improvement. Obviously this is the Korean wave of music, culture, and dramas that I'm always including in my walls of texts. Was very effective. Although the increase of high feelings were not reciprocated as highly by South Koreans. Afterall, there was no similar Japanese wave going through South Korea. The massive drop in 2012 was when president Lee Myung-bak visited Takeshima/Dokdo among other anti-Japanese stuff at the end of his term, for some reason. In 2013, Park Geun-hye became president and in 2014, she made the comfort women issue her top priority towards Japan. These two effectively killed the Korean wave. Slight improvement in January 2016. I'm sensing a slight air of willingness to improve things with South Korea. We'll see..

 

[urbanoid]

Based island-China

 

[Panzermann]

Based island-China

 

 

They can see how well two systems "works" in hong Kong and Macau.