Ultraman’s Q&A session, taking photos with Pikachu and displaying the signature of Japanese figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu, Japanese companies in China firmly control the “traffic password” that attracts ordinary Chinese people.

In order to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations, various folk exchange activities have been held one after another.

As early as June 8, a film festival "Eternal Neighbor" that has been so good and has been launched at the Beijing Century Monument. The reporter of Phoenix Weekly saw a passage in the "Foreword" part of the exhibition: "Fifty knows the destiny. As a neighboring country that can never be moved away, maintaining and developing China-Japan friendly and cooperative relations is in line with the fundamental interests of the two countries and the people of both countries, and is also conducive to peace, stability and prosperity in Asia and even the world."

"Eternal Neighbors - Photography Exhibition for Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Normalization of China-Japan Diplomatic Relations"

This film exhibition began preparations six months in advance, and nearly 20,000 photos were collected through social call for manuscripts and targeted invitations, and finally 202 works were exhibited. Among them, Japanese Ambassador to China, who loves photography, shared the photo "The Glittering Corner Tower".Side by side is Kawaguchiko-cho, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan photographed by former Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua.

202 works also evoke little things about folk exchanges between China and Japan over the past 50 years. For example, during the honeymoon period from the normalization of diplomatic relations to the 1980s and 1990s, high-level mutual visits gave broad space for folk exchanges. Among them are photos of Japanese citizens watching portraits of Mao Zedong and Kakuei Tanaka and banners celebrating the resumption of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations in September 1972. In the 1980s, many Japanese war orphans came to Japan to look for their relatives. Most of these Japanese orphans who were abandoned in the war were raised by Chinese adoptive parents and started their own families.

Even when the political relations between the two countries are in friction or even deteriorate rapidly, civil exchanges have never been interrupted. In the past 50 years, China and Japan have concluded a total of about 260 pairs of friendly cities. The scale of personnel exchanges increased from less than 10,000 people per year at the beginning of normalization of diplomatic relations to 12 million before the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic. The number of flights between China and Japan has increased by more than 22 times from 54 flights per week when they were first opened in 1987 to 1,250 flights. Bilateral trade volume has increased from US$1 billion to more than US$370 billion today.

However, in the three years of the epidemic, China-Japan folk exchanges have been almost completely blocked. On September 21, a poll released by the Japanese private think tank "NPO" showed that 67.1% of Japanese respondents did not know that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan, 43.9% of Japanese respondents were dissatisfied with the current Japan-China relations, and 40% of respondents believed that the mutual visits between the leaders of the two countries should be implemented as soon as possible.

In recent times, former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who is 84 years old, attended various commemorative activities. He sighed: "It has been 50 years since the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan. Today, we, the elderly in our 80s, need to take the stage to promote bilateral relations. There is always an indescribable feeling in our hearts."

There are also Japanese well-known Chinese expert and professor Akio Kakahara. He told Phoenix Weekly: "Almost all people meet are old faces and lack fresh blood. Japan-China relations cannot be solved by experts who study Japan-China issues. We need people from all fields to understand and discuss together."

Recently, Tanaka Makiko, the eldest daughter of former Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka, revealed in an interview with Associated Press, that she has been invited to Tsinghua University to give a speech. At the same time, she plans to invite a Chinese delegation to her father's hometown, Niigata Prefecture, to hold a commemorative event later this year. Kakuei Tanaka is known as the "well-digger" of China-Japan friendship. After his death in 1993, he was buried in the Tanaka family cemetery in Niigata Prefecture.

In Tanaka Makiko's view, diplomacy is about people, and whether you can develop personal relationships and communicate when necessary. "There are not many politicians who can do this."

"At present, there is no hope for improvement in political relations between the two countries, but I am promoting in-depth contact between the people." Tanaka Makiko admitted, "If business, science and cultural exchanges are promoted more, a sense of intimacy will be created between the two countries."

Japan will fully liberalize inbound tourism from October 11 this year, cancel a series of border control measures taken for epidemic prevention, and revitalize the tourism industry. Three years later, Chinese tourists have also begun to look forward to the day they can travel to Japan.

43 aid to China ended, and cooperation with China is far from over

Along with the normalization of diplomatic relations, Japan's government development assistance to China (ODA). During the Beijing Winter Olympics, the ODA project that lasted for 43 years quietly ended.

In February this year, in Muyang County, northeast of Suqian City, Jiangsu Province, 25-year-old Japanese youth, Yabe, was teaching Japanese class for the last semester. In 2019, after graduating from the Department of International Sociology at Tokyo Women's University, Yabe was sent to China as a member of the Japanese Youth Overseas Cooperation Team.

In 1965, Japan founded the Japanese Youth Overseas Cooperation Team to send volunteers to and regions in developing countries. In 1974, after the establishment of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which implemented the ODA project, the Youth Overseas Cooperation Team became an important part of it.

"At that time, I was very interested in the profession of world culture and Japanese teachers, and I studied international relations while I was in school.In order to be sent abroad, I signed up for the cultural anthropology research class and participated in the training course of Japanese teachers. "Yabe Said.

More than 2,000 students from Jianling High School where Yabe Said went to learn Japanese, accounting for more than 40% of the students in the school. But before her, there were never Japanese teachers here. In the classroom, more than half of the students came from surrounding rural areas. She said: "Many children from poor families have weak foundations due to lack of conditions to learn English, and instead choose to take the college entrance examination in Japanese. "The students here are very hardworking, and they are at school from 6:30 am to 10 pm every day, and there is only one day off every month.

Due to the epidemic, Yabe Yabu returned to Japan for more than a year, until the second half of last year, waiting for the opportunity to return to China. She returned to school and completed the last 8 months of teaching. Before leaving, the student wrote in a message to her: "We need to contact more in the future." "

" I feel a little regretful. It would be great if there were Japanese volunteers coming in the future, so that in-depth exchanges could be conducted and such good relationships could be continued. "Yabe said. With the end of her term, Japan's ODA project to China officially came to an end.

JICA sent young volunteers to China in 1986, and has sent a total of 850 people so far. "Not only sent to China, our volunteers have also been sent to more than 100 countries around the world. After interview review, they are asked about the country they want to go to, and then they are allocated according to the needs put forward by the applicant country. "Miho Sasaki, director of JICA China Office, told Phoenix Weekly, "Japanese teachers are the profession with the largest number of people sent, and others include nurses, early childhood education, baseball teachers, etc. "

In the memory of Sasaki , around 2000, the peak period of JICA China firm, at that time, there were 60 to 70 employees, and now there are only 8 people left. "In fact, the period with the largest budget was in the second half of the 1990s, but because it was already in the early 2000, the number of people at that time was the largest. "

JICA China Office Director Miho Sasaki

"Distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors" is her summary of Japan's aid to China over the past 43 years: "China and Japan are very close. If there are any difficulties, the two countries can help each other. Japan has always carried out its work in China with this mood. I believe that China also has the same idea to cooperate with us. "

3.66 trillion yen (approximately RMB 255.1 billion), which is the total amount of Japan's ODA project to China in 43 years.

Among them, the Japanese yen loan to China reached 331.65 million yen, the free aid was 157.6 billion yen, and the funds for technical assistance such as Japanese language teachers were 185.8 billion yen. Regarding the Japanese yen loan, China's final repayment period is 2047.

Beijing China-Japan Friendship Hospital , Capital Airport Terminal 2; Baosteel and Pudong Airport in Shanghai; Yangtze River Second Bridge in Wuhan; electrification and transformation of Beijing-Thailand Railway are all projects in the past. In recent years, the reconstruction after the Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan Province, the maintenance and training under the aging society, and air pollution prevention and control projects have also been participated by the Japanese side.

China-Japan Friendship Hospital

Japan's ODA to China began with the visit of then Prime Minister Hoshi Masayoshi Dahei visited China in December 1979. In order to dispel external concerns, Hoshi Dahei published the "three principles" of ODA to China: First, no military-related aid and cooperation; second, projects with Asian and African countries (especially ASEAN countries) will not be affected; third, Japan-China relations are not exclusive, It was only cooperated under coordination with other developed countries.

The first cooperation project between China and Japan was set at the Shanghai Baoshan Iron and Steel Plant (the predecessor of Baosteel Group), mainly to introduce technology and equipment from New Nippon Steel. After Baosteel introduced dry quenching technology from Japan, it became the first domestic enterprise to adopt this technology. Later, it spread the technology to all parts of the country, taking the first step for China's crude steel production to surpass Japan in 1996 and jumped to the world's first place.

Ma Shuping, a researcher at the Enterprise Research Institute of the Development Research Center of the State Council, once commented to Phoenix Weekly: "Japan introduced the most advanced coastal steel production method to China at that time, not only improved the production efficiency of Chinese enterprises, but also brought advanced business philosophy, changing the development model of China's entire steel industry."

At that time, China showed strong interest in the industrial policies formulated by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry (now the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Industry). Japanese scholar Toshiya Tsuga, who had worked in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, explained to Phoenix Weekly that at that time, Japan's industrial policy retained the content of pre-war national socialism, such as industrial group integration, national grouping to achieve industry goals, and formulating a national mobilization system.

Although Masayoshi Ohira has promoted Japan's aid to China, he saw pessimistically: "There is a friendly atmosphere now, and it seems very lively. When China achieves rapid economic growth in 30 or 40 years, there will definitely be problems!" The result came true.

During this period, sensitive factors involving economic, trade, history, and Taiwan were constantly fermented in 1981, sensitive factors involving economic, trade, history, and Taiwan, including the "Baosteel Contract Change Issues", 1982, "Textbook Issues", 1985, and "Guanghualiao Issues" in 1987. Although the basic consensus reached by China and Japan and Japan and Japan's ODA policy toward China have not been shaken, political hidden dangers have begun to emerge.

After 1989, some Japanese government personnel withdrew from the ODA program, but did not suspend their aid policies. In June 1992, then Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa formulated the "Japanese ODA Outline", which deepened its political color. In August 1995, Japan frozen all free aid except humanitarian emergency and private aid on the grounds that China conducted nuclear tests, and the amount of aid also plummeted from about 7.8 billion yen in 1994 to about 500 million yen. When China declared to suspend nuclear tests in 1996, a lot of free aid gradually recovered.

The reversal of China-Japan national strength was gradually reflected in the early 21st century. From 1999 to 2000, China's military expenditure exceeded 100 billion yuan, and the call for "ODA graduation theories for China" has increased in Japan. The debate over "whether to stop the ODA project?" has not stopped. The Japanese ODA project once had a limit of $1,400 in income, and China's per capita income reached $1,090 in 2003, and reached the upper limit in two or three years.

In the Asian Cup in the summer of 2004, Japan won the championship and China won the runner-up. In the same year, the Japanese parliament sent members to China for on-site inspections, and then decided to terminate the part of paid aid - the Japanese yen low-interest loan project. In 2005, the Japanese government officially announced that it would stop providing loans to China in 2008, but it still retained technical cooperation to China focusing on energy conservation and environmental protection.

Until October 23, 2018, the Japanese side announced that the ODA project with China, which lasted for nearly 40 years, will be fully completed within the year. When he visited China, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said: "In this process, Japan moved forward with China through ODA and private investment."

At that time, then JICA Chairman Shinchi Kitaoka said in an interview with Phoenix Weekly: "If China feels that it can find a place worth learning from Japan, it can continue to cooperate." As he said, in March this year, JICA did not stop cooperation with China due to the termination of the ODA project, but retained the Chinese firm as the executive authority.

In March this year, JICA did not stop cooperation with China due to the termination of the ODA project, but retained the Chinese firm as the executive authority.

The outbreak of the new crown epidemic in January 2020, and JICA participated in the first Japanese chartered flight aid work. 15,000 masks, 50,000 pairs of gloves, 8,000 protective goggles, 2,000 medical masks, and 50 sets of protective clothing were sent to Wuhan.

According to the initiative of "actively responding to population aging" in China's "Government Work Report" in 2022, JICA is also cooperating with China on solving the problem of aging. "We have carried out talent training programs for elderly care in four regions including Beijing, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shaanxi, etc. Although the above project has been completed, we are still helping relevant institutions to cultivate nursing talents and promote talent exchanges in this field." Sasaki shared, "For Japan, aging is an unsolved problem. We hope to continue to communicate with China and promote the solution to the aging problem."

" No matter what the relationship between the two countries, my responsibility is to maintain economic and trade cooperation"

In recent years, arguments about "Japanese enterprises reduce their dependence on China" and "Japanese enterprises withdraw from China" have appeared repeatedly online. However, according to the "2022 White Paper on Chinese Economy and Japanese Enterprises" released by the Japan Chamber of Commerce in July this year, in the survey on the direction of business development in the next one to two years, Japanese companies that answered "expanded" their business in China accounted for 40.9%, an increase of 4.3 percentage points from the previous year; only 3% to 4% planned to reduce their business or leave the Chinese market. In 2020, when the performance of Japanese companies in China was at a low point due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the performance of Japanese companies in 2021 also recovered significantly.

Japan Trade Occupation Agency (JETRO) Director of the Beijing Representative Office and General Representative of Northeast Asia Regional Representative Ryuu Takashima believes that the main reason why Japanese companies' overseas investment has become active in Southeast Asia in recent years is that China is no longer a country with low labor. "But because the Chinese market is still huge and important, Japanese companies will still give priority to China when investing. "

JETRO Beijing Representative Office Director and Northeast Asia General Representative Ryuu Takashima

In 2005, Takashima came to China for the first time and worked in the Beijing Office of the "-Japanese-China Economic Association ". The "Japan-China Economic Association" was established in November 1972 and is committed to promoting economic and trade cooperation between the two countries and promoting friendly relations among the people. At that time, Takashima was mainly responsible for helping Japanese enterprises enter He is stationed in China and connected with government departments in various parts of China.

He still remembers the situation when he participated in the first China-Japan Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Comprehensive Forum in Tokyo in 2006. Wang Yi, then Chinese Ambassador to Japan, mentioned in his speech: "In the situation where political relations between China and Japan are facing difficulties, the strengthening of cooperation in the field of energy conservation and environmental protection will help the people of the two countries further enhance the consensus on China-Japan interdependence and common woe, and enhance the common interests of the two countries, thereby providing new impetus for the improvement and stable development of China-Japan relations. "

At the three-day forum, more than 280 Chinese representatives and more than 500 Japanese representatives conducted extensive exchanges on energy conservation and environmental protection fields. Finally, China and Japan signed a number of cooperation agreements. Since then, "introducing energy-saving and environmental protection technologies into China" has become one of the important tasks of Takashima.

traced back to the trade exchanges between the two countries and started before the normalization of diplomatic relations in 1972. In 1962, Chinese representative Liao Chengzhi and Japanese representative Tatsuosuke Takasaki Leading the two countries signed the "Mour of Civil Affairs between China and Japan" (referred to as the "LT Agreement" and named after the first letter of the two surnames).

In 1962, led by Liao Chengzhi, the representative of China and Tatsuosuke Takasaki, the two countries signed the "Mour of Civil Affairs between China and Japan".

"The reason why we were able to sign the "LT Agreement" was because under the background of the times at that time, there was a necessity for Japan-China economic and trade cooperation. "Takashima explained, "At that time, Japan needed China's coal and iron ore resources very much, while China needed Japan's industrial products and technology. Both countries need the economic resources of each other. "

" The Japan-China economic cooperation has embarked on the road of rapid development, but it has begun with China's reform and opening up. Mr. Deng Xiaoping's visit to Japan in 1978 was a very important opportunity. "Takashima recalled to Phoenix Weekly, "This is the first time that the Chinese national leader visited Japan. I was only 14 years old when he visited Japan and saw him riding on the Shinkansen on TV. For the Japanese, Mr. Deng Xiaoping is a household name and everyone respects him very much. ”

Since then, at the invitation of Deng Xiaoping, many Japanese companies went to China to invest and made great contributions to promoting China's economic development.

50 years, China-Japan bilateral trade volume has basically maintained a growth trend, but in 2012, affected by the Japanese government's "island purchase" storm, it has shown negative growth for five consecutive years; Japan's direct investment in China has also experienced negative growth for four consecutive years after 2013, until it reversed in 2017.

According to Chinese statistics, the total Sino-Japanese trade volume in 2021 was US$371.4 billion, an increase of 17.1% year-on-year. Japan has always been China's second largest trading partner for many years. According to Japanese statistics, China-Japan trade volume reached US$391.4 billion last year, an increase of 15.1% year-on-year.

"I cannot be sure whether economic and trade relations can always be a stabilizer of Japan-China relations in the future.But no matter how the relationship between the two countries changes, my responsibility is to maintain the cooperation between Japan and China in economic and trade. "Takashima admitted, "Economic and trade cooperation is needed no matter what era, and my job is to provide assistance to the cooperation between the two countries. "

Takashima has been engaged in Sino-Japanese economic exchanges and cooperation in recent years. What makes him sigh is that since China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, the investment environment of Japanese companies in China has undergone great changes. The area he felt the deepest is intellectual property protection . "In early 2000, although Chinese companies began to have the idea of ​​intellectual property protection, many people still did not realize the importance of this issue. But in recent years, I have seen the determination and perseverance of large enterprises such as Alibaba, , Tencent, , etc. to protect intellectual property rights. "

In addition, China's first " Anti-Monopoly Law " was implemented in 2008, making market competition more fair. "However, after the COVID-19 pandemic, regulations on epidemic prevention and control have imposed certain restrictions on the development of Japanese enterprises in China. In order to operate the company better, we hope that China can give more space in the future. "Takashima said.

In addition, the Chinese government officially announced in 2020 that it will achieve carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. In the "2022 White Paper on Chinese Economy and Japanese Enterprises", more than 60% of Japanese companies in China have or are considering taking measures to achieve this goal. Takashima revealed: "Some Japanese companies in China have also used their own technology to help Chinese companies achieve carbon peak and carbon neutrality. For them, this work has become a necessary task. ”

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) officially came into effect on January 1 this year, which means that the world's largest free trade zone has officially begun. In the past year, JETRO, where Takashima is located, has also been popularizing Japanese small and medium-sized enterprises how to use the agreement to carry out investment and cooperation in countries such as China and ASEAN.

For enterprises, the biggest benefit after RCEP comes into effect is the reduction of import costs and the increase in export opportunities brought by the reduction of tariffs. According to the agreement, Japan exports 86% of China's products With zero tariffs, 88% of the products exported to Japan also enjoy zero tariff treatment. According to the Japanese government estimates, RCEP is expected to eventually allow 91.5% of Japan's industrial products to be exempted from duty, and GDP will increase (GDP) by 2.7%, bringing economic benefits beyond other trade agreements signed by Japan so far.

In the end, Takashima did not forget to "plant grass" and said, "Do you know that the pop-up store jointly created by Shiseido and the Internet celebrity bookstore Shiya Bookstore has landed in the square in front of Wangfujing Department Store in Beijing? "He excitedly introduced that in April last year, Japan's super popular shopping mall LaLaport (LaLaport), chose to open stores in Shanghai for the first time when he went overseas. AEON Moon City will also open stores in various parts of China, with the goal of building 29 shopping malls in China by 2025. "Japanese companies used to invest in China mainly in manufacturing. Now, they are looking for new business opportunities. ”

(Intern Qi Menghan also contributed to this article)