Recently, the Japanese side sent an economic delegation of 180 people to visit China and stayed for four days. There are two main top advisers to the delegation, namely Masayo Tokura, chairman of the Japan Keidanren Federation and chairman of Sumitomo Chemical, and Ken Kobayashi, chairman of Nissho and advisor to Mitsubishi Corporation. On the day they arrived in China, the Chinese side received them on a large scale. It has been learned that China held a welcome banquet on the same day, at which representatives of the two countries raised their glasses and discussed the way of development. During this period, Ren Hongbin, director of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, stressed that the Chinese and Japanese economies can make the cake bigger through mutual cooperation. The implication is that we hope that Sino-Japanese relations can be premised on healthy development, and only a good environment for cooperation can bring mutual benefit and win-win results to both sides.
Shortly after the welcome banquet, on Thursday, January 25, the Chinese side also met with the Japanese delegation. According to Bloomberg and other foreign media reports, after the incident, one of the top advisers of the Japanese side, Sumitomo Chemical, chairman of the board of directors and chairman of Keidanren Masakazu Tokura, said that Japan had obtained important commitments from the Chinese side at the meeting, and the Chinese high-level said that they would improve the business environment for foreign-funded enterprises. Masakazu Tokura believes that this is a meaningful meeting. It can be seen that Masakazu Tokura is very happy. Why is China's commitment so important to them? Perhaps there are several reasons why their trip is a onerous task in the face of downward pressure on the economy and the recent political turmoil in Japan.
Last year, more than 8,000 companies went bankrupt in Japan, the highest number in five years. The direct cause of the bankruptcy of these enterprises is that the debt problem cannot be resolved. In addition, Japan is also facing problems such as the continuous depreciation of the yen and inflation. It is also putting a lot of pressure on Japan's finances. In terms of the domestic political situation, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has chosen to "lose his car and protect the handsome" in order to keep his position as prime minister, and dissolved the "Kishida faction" of the Liberal Democratic Party. However, this kind of "self-severing one's arm" approach still cannot stop the trend of the cabinet's approval rating plummeting. According to Japan's "Yomiuri Shimbun" reported on January 22, a national public opinion survey conducted by the Yomiuri Shimbun from the 19th to the 22nd showed that the approval rating of the Kishida cabinet is still at a low level of 24%, which is the same as the new low set in November last year since the Liberal Democratic Party returned to power in 2012. This shows that Kishida's ruling foundation has been seriously shaken.
In addition, in recent years, as the anti-war sentiment of the Japanese people has been on the rise, the signing of the Tomahawk missile agreement between Japan and the United States not long ago has met with strong opposition from some Japanese people. This makes Kishida's promotion of a more radical strategic line face certain public opinion obstacles. Due to a variety of factors, Kishida has had to take some actions to de-escalate the situation, which naturally includes building good relations with China to further change his image as a ruler. It is worth mentioning that before the delegation officially arrived in China, foreign media once exaggerated that Japan's trip was to get China to lift the ban on aquatic products in person, but now Japan's performance does not seem too transgressive and unreasonable. This shows that the improvement of Sino-Japanese relations may not be as difficult as people think. Recently, Japan's new ambassador to China, Kenji Kanesugi, made a positive statement on Sino-Japanese relations, saying that China is one of the most important countries for Japan, and he will promote the positive development of relations between the two countries during his term of office. At the same time, he also stressed that Sino-Japanese relations are not determined by Sino-US relations, and Japan's foreign policy is entirely based on its own national interests.
As a matter of fact, it would be great if all the politicians in Japan really had this awareness, but I am afraid that Japan will still hold on to the idea of continuing the line of "political cold and economic heat" with China, and when the time comes, many positive trends will be nothing more than bubbles, which will burst at the first touch. How to dispel China's concerns requires Japan to step up its efforts and implement its sincerity. In this way, China and Japan will be able to usher in a good situation of two-way travel at an early date.