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Anti-Japan sentiment growing sharply in China, S. Korea: survey
WASHINGTON (Kyodo) — Most of the people polled in China and South Korea have an unfavorable view of Japan due to issues related to history, up sharply from five years ago, a U.S. research institute’s survey showed Thursday.
The survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center in March and April, said 74 percent of people surveyed in China have a “very unfavorable” opinion of Japan, up 40 percentage points from the previous survey in 2008, while 38 percent of South Koreans held a similar view, up 25 points.
Including those who said they have a “somewhat unfavorable” opinion of Japan, the rate in China stood at 90 percent, while that in South Korea was 77 percent.
“One reason for such anti-Japan sentiment in China and South Korea may be because neither the Chinese nor the Koreans believe Japan has sufficiently apologized for its military actions during the 1930s and 1940s,” the report said.
In contrast, about half or more of the public in other Asian and Pacific countries surveyed said they view Japan favorably, with the figure at 80 percent among Malaysians.
The report also showed 79 percent of Indonesians, 78 percent of Australians and Filipinos, and 51 percent of Pakistanis see Japan in a positive light.
Meanwhile, in both China and South Korea, 85 percent said they have a negative view of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The report said this may, in part, be a byproduct of Abe’s visit to the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo in October 2012 prior to becoming premier in December that year.
Yasukuni Shrine honors convicted Class-A Japanese war criminals along with the war dead and is regarded particularly by China and South Korea as glorifying Japan’s militaristic past.
In South Korea, 98 percent said they do not think Japan has apologized sufficiently for its military actions during the 1930 and 1940s, while 78 percent in China had the same opinion.
Kyodo News, July 12, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130712p2g00m0dm070000c.html
S. Korean court orders Japanese firm to compensate for wartime labor
SEOUL, July 10, (Kyodo) — The Seoul High Court on Wednesday ordered a Japanese steelmaker to pay compensation to four South Koreans who were forced to work at the firm’s steel mill in Japan during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
In a victory for the plaintiffs, the court ordered Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. to pay 400 million won (around $352,000). The amount is equal to that sought by the four former forced laborers, one of whom is 90 years old.
In his ruling, Judge Yoon Seong Keun said the company committed “crimes against humanity” by joining hands with the Japanese government to mobilize forced labor for the sake of pursuing a war of aggression and “illegal” colonization of the Korean Peninsula.
The ruling said such aggression not only goes against the international order and South Korea’s Constitution but also the Japan’s own Constitution.
It is the first ruling by a South Korean court ordering a Japanese firm to pay compensation in a case involving postwar reparations.
Besides five similar cases currently before courts in South Korea, Wednesday’s ruling is likely to have a significant influence on other cases to be brought against Japanese enterprises.
Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal issued a statement calling it an “unjust decision that denies the Japan-South Korea compensation rights treaty concluded between states that completely and conclusively resolved the problem of conscripted labor.”
The company added that it intends to promptly file an appeal with the Supreme Court.
In May last year South Korea’s Supreme Court ruled that the right of former forced workers and their families to seek withheld wages and compensation was not invalidated by a 1965 treaty that normalized relations between South Korea and Japan.
That landmark decision reversed previous rulings by South Korean district and appellate courts, so the Supreme Court ordered the retrials of two cases involving Koreans forcibly taken to Japan to labor in factories in the waning years of Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule of Korea.
Wednesday’s ruling concerns four plaintiffs who were forced to work at a steel mill belonging to Japan Iron & Steel Co., which was later known as Nippon Steel Corp. until it merged with another steelmaker last year to form Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal.
In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that the wartime compensation issue was already resolved under the bilateral accord.
The Japanese government maintains that all individual compensation claims were settled with the 1965 treaty. Japanese courts have also dismissed claims from South Koreans.
A lower court in Busan is scheduled to hand down on July 30 its ruling on the other case sent back by the Supreme Court.
Kyodo News, July 10, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130710p2g00m0dm066000c.html
China refutes Japan’s claim of ’dangerous’ maritime activities
BEIJING (Kyodo) — China on Tuesday refuted the Japanese government’s criticism that it is involved in “dangerous” maritime activities, saying that they are based on international and domestic laws.
“I want to point out that China carries out legitimate maritime activities according to international laws and relevant domestic laws,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a press conference. “China takes the path of peaceful development and pursues a defense policy which is defensive in nature.”
Hua made the remarks in response to an annual report released by Japan’s Defense Ministry earlier in the day that China’s activities in the sea and the air include “dangerous actions that could cause a contingency situation.”
She said the report makes “unfounded accusations against China” and urged Japan to “correct its attitude.”
The Japanese Defense Ministry’s White Paper said Japan is concerned about China’s potentially dangerous maritime activities and Beijing should act according to international rules rather than by using force.
Citing a January incident in which Japan says a Chinese navy frigate locked weapons’ radar on a Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer in the East China Sea, the paper criticized Beijing for denying use of the radar and accused it of giving false explanations over the incident.
Hua said China is committed to the settlement of territorial disputes through dialogue but will not allow any country to violate its territorial sovereignty.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should make more efforts to build mutual trust between countries and promote regional stability, she said.
Kyodo News, July 10, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130710p2g00m0dm037000c.html
Chinese military slams defense paper
BEIJING — China’s military is “strongly discontented with and firmly opposed to” the Japanese defense white paper that criticized intrusions by Chinese government ships into Japanese waters around the Senkaku Islands, according to a Ministry of National Defense spokesman.
“The new edition of Japan’s defense white paper deliberately ignores facts and plays up ’China’s military threat,’” Geng Yansheng said in a statement released Thursday night.
The white paper, released Tuesday, “made groundless accusations against China’s legitimate conduct for safeguarding national sovereignty, and attempted to sow dissension between China and its neighboring countries,” he said. Geng also said his ministry has lodged a protest with Japan.
While Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying criticized the Japanese report at her regular press conference Tuesday, Geng’s statement took a harsher note, an indication that the Chinese military is growing frustrated with Japan’s stance on the uninhabited group of East China Sea islets Tokyo took possession of in 1895.
The Japanese-administered islets are claimed by China, which calls them Diaoyu, and Taiwan, which calls them Tiaoyutai.
In the white paper, the Japanese government said China’s repeated intrusions into Japanese waters around the islands are “extremely regrettable.”
In the statement, Geng also said Japan’s nationalization of some of the islands last September was “a grave violation” of China’s territorial sovereignty and caused tensions in bilateral relations. China has been claiming the islands since the 1970s, after a report came out on possible seabed mineral deposits and vast fisheries potential.
Japan falsely accuses China of destroying bilateral relations, Geng said, adding that Japanese officials’ remarks on the Senkakus issue “will mislead international opinions and create tensions in the region.”
Geng also criticized Japanese leaders for sometimes making “irresponsible remarks” on wartime history, warning that such moves will arouse strong concerns and high alert among its Asian neighbors and the international community.
“We urge the Japanese side to reflect on its aggressive history, choose the path of peaceful development and win the trust of its Asian neighbors by concrete actions,” Geng said.
Jiji Press, July 12, 2013
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/07/12/national/chinese-military-slams-defense-paper/#.Ues-RkrS-gM
Japan won’t easily give in to Chinese demands over summit: spokesman
TOKYO (Kyodo) — Japan will not easily give in to Chinese conditions for holding a summit but the two nations are moving toward restoring their ties damaged by a territorial row, Tokyo’s top spokesman said Monday.
“We will not compromise where we cannot, and it is natural we will keep standing firm,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference.
China has demanded that Tokyo acknowledge that a territorial dispute exists over a group of Japanese-controlled islets in the East China Sea as a condition for holding summit talks, according to bilateral relations sources.
But Suga also said Japan will continue to seek a “strategic, mutually beneficial relationship” with China, and that the countries “are getting closer to each other” while arranging contacts between working-level officials.
Japan maintains no dispute exists over the uninhabited Senkaku Islands, claimed by China as Diaoyu, and has rejected the Chinese demand, according to the sources.
No Sino-Japanese summit has been held for months, and talks have been suspended on an official agreement to build a “maritime liaison mechanism” to avoid an accidental clash.
Kyodo News, July 1, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130701p2g00m0dm076000c.html
“Three nos” on Senkakus closing window to bilateral dialogue, China says
BEIJING — China has been taking an increasingly hard line against Japan over the Senkaku Islands, accusing Tokyo of propagating “three nos” – no recognition, no shelving and no dialogue, it was learned Saturday.
China believes that if Japan continues to say no, its leaders won’t be able to hold talks, Chinese government sources said.
First, the sources said, China argues that Japan does not recognize there is a territorial dispute over the uninhabited Japanese-administered East China Sea islets, which it calls Diaoyu.
Second, Beijing has criticized Tokyo for denying China’s claim that past leaders agreed to shelve the issue. Third, the Chinese government accuses Japan of not agreeing to dialogue based on the shared recognition that there is a territorial dispute.
The argument of the three nos has been mentioned by key Chinese officials in recent months.
A high-ranking Chinese official said that although Abe says the door is open to dialogue with China, the two cannot even stand in front of the door as long as the three nos persist. Unless Japan changes its stance, the bilateral relationship will become inflexible with no possible solutions in sight, the official added.
Jiji Press, July 1, 2013
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/07/01/national/three-nos-on-senkakus-closing-window-to-bilateral-dialogue-china-says/#.UdtKS6xjbRY
Japan opposes China’s gas development near contested waters
TOKYO/BEIJING (Kyodo) — Japan expressed opposition Wednesday to exploitation by China of a possible natural gas field that may stretch into the seabed under contested waters in the East China Sea.
“We conveyed our serious concerns (to the Chinese side) through diplomatic channels,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference.
In the latest development threatening to worsen bilateral relations that are already tense over a group of islands in the sea, Japan has confirmed that a large Chinese crane ship is building a mining facility at a point near the Japan-claimed border between their exclusive economic zones.
Although the point is in the Chinese EEZ, it is only 26 kilometers off the border, raising the prospect that the undersea gas field may extend into the Japanese side. Tokyo has proposed joint development of the area, but bilateral talks on the matter have stalled.
“It is not acceptable if China unilaterally develops (gas fields) in the waters where Japanese and Chinese claims overlap,” the top government spokesman said.
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a press conference that “China does not accept the Japanese protest.”
Hua said China’s exploration activity is “totally justifiable” as it is taking place “in waters under its own jurisdiction,” noting also that Beijing has never accepted the so-called median line in the sea “unilaterally” claimed by Tokyo.
The issue stems from unsettled demarcation of the East China Sea where the two countries’ economic waters overlap.
Under international law, coastal nations can claim an EEZ extending 200 nautical miles from their shores, with exclusive rights to exploration and use of marine resources.
But the waters between Japan and China are less than 400 nautical miles wide.
So Japan has set a so-called median line in the waters, equidistant from the two countries, as the EEZ demarcation and recognized the line’s east side as Japan’s EEZ under domestic law.
The area where China has started building the facility is within Japan’s 200-nautical-mile zone.
Japan had previously confirmed China’s gas development at four other points near the median line between their coastlines. China says its EEZ extends much further from the mainland, as far as waters around Okinawa.
Kyodo News, July 3, 2013
China demands no-entry zone around Senkakus to hold summit talks
TOKYO (Kyodo) — As a condition for holding Sino-Japanese summit talks amid a dispute over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, China demanded after the Japanese government purchased the main part of the islands last September that Tokyo acknowledge a territorial dispute exists and agree on a 12-nautical-mile no-entry zone around them, Japan-China relations sources said Friday.
Japan has rejected such demands for “shelving” the dispute over ownership of the uninhabited Japanese-controlled islands, which are claimed by China and known there as Diaoyu, according to the sources. Japan maintains no dispute exists as the islands are legally and historically part of Japan.
No summit talks between Japan and China have been held for months, and talks have been suspended on an official agreement to build a “maritime liaison mechanism” to avoid an accidental clash.
Diplomatic talks by high-level officials of the two countries have also been suspended, tripartite summit talks involving Japan, China and South Korea expected to be held this spring were not held, and Japan-China diplomacy has remained deadlocked.
Kyodo News, June 19, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130622p2g00m0dm003000c.html
Bad feelings dominate Japan-South Korea public sentiment
Nearly 80 percent of South Koreans have a negative impression of Japan, while about 40 percent of Japanese have an unfavorable image of South Korea, according to the results of a bilateral poll released Tuesday.
The first joint survey conducted by Japanese think tank Genron NPO and South Korean think tank East Asia Institute found that the major reasons behind the negative feelings are the territorial dispute over a couple of rocky islets, called Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea, and differences in historical perceptions.
Around 40 percent of both the Japanese and South Korean respondents said their impression of the other country went sour in the past year.
The survey covered 1,000 Japanese aged over 18 and 1,004 South Koreans aged over 19 between late March and April 15.
About 90 percent of both the South Korean and Japanese respondents said their source of information on the others country is domestic media, and TV is the single biggest news source.
A total of 50.3 percent of the South Korean pollees said Japan is currently is under military rule, while about 40 percent of Japanese see the current South Korea as excessively nationalistic.
Meanwhile, 36.2 percent of the South Koreans said they feel closer to China than Japan. Only 13.5 percent of the South Korean respondents said they feel more closer to Japan than China.
On the contrary, 45.5 percent of the Japanese respondents said they feel closer to South Korea than China, while a mere 5.9 percent felt closer to China.
Mizuho Aoki, Japan Times Staff Writer, May 8, 2013
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