Background , Japanese diplomat who lived in China for 17 years. China and Japan are geographically separated only by a relatively narrow stretch of ocean. China has strongly influenced Japan with its writing system, architecture, culture, religion,
philosophy, and law. For a long time, there was trade and cultural contacts between the Japanese court and the Chinese nobility. castle during the
Boxer Rebellion, 1900. When Western countries forced Japan to open trading in the mid-19th century, Japan moved towards modernization (Meiji Restoration). The
Empire of Japan viewed the
Qing dynasty as an antiquated, backwards civilization, unable to defend itself against Western forces in part due to the
First and
Second Opium Wars along with the
Eight-Nation Alliance's involvement in suppressing the
Boxer Rebellion. of
Beijing after capturing the city in July 1937 During the
Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officially engaged in a "
United Front" with the
Nationalists (KMT) against Japan, but primarily utilized the period to expand its forces, military strength, and territorial control through guerrilla warfare. While engaging in selected, often limited battles, the CCP largely focused on behind-the-lines organization to prepare for post-war power struggles with
Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist forces.
Mao Zedong viewed the conflict as a way to weaken the KMT while strengthening the CCP's position for the
inevitable civil war, which eventually came after the
surrender of Japan in 1945 and ended with the
CCP's victory in 1949 on mainland China. As a result of
Japanese war crimes during the
Second Sino-Japanese War such as the
Nanjing massacre and the Chinese view that Japan has not taken full responsibility for them, the bilateral relationship between China and Japan continues to be a sensitive issue in China.
After the establishment of the People's Republic of China Between 1949 and 1972, Japan–China relations were characterized as cold, with Japan heavily constrained by the
U.S.–Japan security alliance, which mandated
maintaining relations with Taipei (Taiwan) over Beijing. Despite this, private trade and cultural ties persisted under a "separation of politics and economics" (seikei bunri) policy, culminating in its normalization in 1972 following the U.S. rapprochement with China. Meanwhile, during this period, socialist parties in Japan maintained ties with the ruling Chinese Communist Party. As the primary opposition to the ruling
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) for decades, the
Japanese Socialist Party (JSP) was known for its "neutralist" foreign policy and frequently sent delegations to China to build ties, often serving as a conduit for people-to-people diplomacy before the 1972 normalization. Meanwhile, anti-communist sentiment was running high in Japan, with ultranationalist conservatives outraged by these contacts, particularly with JSP leader
Inejirō Asanuma for having portrayed the U.S. as Japan's main enemy during his trip to Communist China, eventually resulting in his assassination in October 1960.
Normalization In December 1971, the Chinese and Japanese trade liaison offices began to discuss the possibility of restoring diplomatic trade relations, and in July 1972,
Kakuei Tanaka succeeded
Eisaku Satō as the new Japanese Prime Minister. Tanaka assumed a normalization of the Sino–Japanese relations. The
Japan–China Friendship Parliamentarians' Union (JCFUP) was created in 1974 as a semi-official platform focused on dialogue and goodwill that acts as a crucial channel for diplomatic relations that promotes cultural exchanges, economic links and political understanding. A cross-party group of Japanese lawmakers, often led by the moderate
Buddhist democratic party
Kōmeitō would meet with high-level Chinese officials and the
CCP's liaison department to smoothen relations and calm occasional political tensions even to the present day. Negotiations for a
Sino-Japanese peace and friendship treaty began in 1974, but soon broken off in September 1975. China insisted the anti-
hegemony clause, which was directed at the Soviet Union, be included in the treaty. Japan objected the clause and did not wish to get involved in the
Sino-Soviet split. Talks on the peace treaty were resumed in July 1978, and the agreement was reached in August on a compromise version of the anti-hegemony clause. The
Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and China was signed on August 12 and came into effect October 23, 1978, under the two leaders of
Deng Xiaoping and
Takeo Fukuda.
1980s The 1980s were a high point of China–Japan relations, and Japan pursued a strategy of "Friendship Diplomacy" with China. The
General Secretary of the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP),
Hu Yaobang, visited Japan in November 1983, and Prime Minister
Yasuhiro Nakasone reciprocated by visiting China in March 1984. Economic issues centered on Chinese complaints that the influx of Japanese products into China had produced a serious
trade deficit for China. Nakasone and other Japanese leaders tried to relieve above concerns during visits to Beijing and in other talks with Chinese officials. They assured the Chinese of Japan's continued large-scale development and commercial assistance, and to obstruct any Sino-Soviet realignment against Japan. The two countries also concluded a bilateral investment treaty in 1988 after seven years of tough negotiation, where China finally agreed to grant Japanese investments with "national treatment". In the late 1980s, China and Japan began cooperation on environmental matters.
1990s and CCP General Secretary
Jiang Zemin on 7 April 1992. In 1990, Japan became the first member of the
G7 to restore high level relations with China. On 6 April 1992,
General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Jiang Zemin visited Japan. In October 1992, Japanese emperor
Akihito visited China, the first visit to China by a Japanese emperor. The visit marked a significant improvement in the relationship. Relations were further improved when Prime Minister
Tomiichi Murayama visited China in May 1995, where he visited the
Marco Polo Bridge and the
Museum of the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the first Japanese prime minister to do so. He also issued the
Murayama Statement in August 1995, in which he apologised for the Japan's actions during
World War II, an act that was highly appreciated in China. On 29 August, the Japanese government protested China's nuclear test and announced the freezing of government loan aid to China. Continuing the bilateral cooperation on environmental matters that began in the late 1980s, the
Sino-Japanese Friendship Centre for Environmental Protection was established in 1996. China was angered by the statement, and protested the interference in its internal affairs. The
Anti-Secession Law was passed by the third session of the
10th National People's Congress, and was ratified in March 2005, and then the law went into effect immediately. Subsequently,
anti-Japanese demonstrations took place simultaneously in China and other Asian countries. However, the "warm" relationship between China and Japan had been revived by two Japanese Prime Ministers,
Shinzo Abe and particularly
Yasuo Fukuda whose father achieved to conclude the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and China. In May 2008,
Hu Jintao was the first
General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in over a decade to be invited to Japan on an official visit, and called for increased "co-operation" between the two countries. A joint statement by General Secretary Hu Jintao and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda announced a
mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests, reading: "The two sides resolved to face history squarely, advance toward the future, and endeavor with persistence to create a new era of a "mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests" between Japan and China. They announced that they would align Japan–China relations with the trends of
international community and together forge a bright future for the
Asia-Pacific region and the world while deepening mutual understanding, building mutual trust, and expanding mutually beneficial cooperation between their nations in an ongoing fashion into the future". In October 2008, Japanese Prime Minister
Tarō Asō visited Beijing to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the conclusion of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and China. At the reception, he remarked on his "personal conviction regarding Japan-China relations": "We should not constrain ourselves in the name of friendship between Japan and China. Rather, sound competition and active cooperation will constitute a true "mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests."
Confucius said, "At thirty, I stood firm." In the same way, Japan and China must now stand atop the international stage and work to spread to the rest of the world this spirit of benefiting together". Although Japanese and Chinese policymakers claimed that "ice-breaking" and "ice-melting" occurred in the bilateral relationship between 2006 and 2010, however, none of the fundamental problems related to history and disputed territory had been resolved, and so there was a virtual "ice-berg" under the surface. Following 2009, the
Democratic Party administrations under
Yukio Hatoyama and
Naoto Kan pursued a "new foreign policy" that drew closer to China and integrated into Asia, leading to progress in the relationship. However, the Democratic Party's domestic and foreign policy blunders, particularly regarding the relocation of US military bases in Okinawa, brought this new foreign policy to an end. By the last Democratic Party administration under
Yoshihiko Noda, Japan had renewed serious disagreements with China on historical issues and the Senkaku Islands.
2010s In 2010, China overtook Japan as the world's second-largest economy. In 2012, China's gross GDP was 1.4 times as big as Japan's. In 2011, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman
Ma Zhaoxu criticized the annual Japanese defense white paper for its use of the
China threat theory. In August 2012, Hong Kong activists landed on one of the disputed Senkaku (Diaoyu Islands), and Japanese nationalists responded by landing on the island the following week. In September 2012, the Japanese government purchased three of the islets from a private Japanese owner, leading to widespread anti-Japan demonstrations in China. As soon as Japanese government announced Japan's nationalization of the islands in 2012, relations between the two countries broke to a freezing point, which triggered a series of military action by Chinese government as countermeasures. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda purchased the islets on behalf of the central government to "pre-empt" Tokyo Governor
Shintaro Ishihara's plan to purchase them with Tokyo municipal funds. Ishihara is well known for his provocative nationalist actions, and Noda feared that Ishihara would try to occupy the islands or otherwise use them to provoke China."
Mass protests against Japanese actions occurred in major Chinese cities. Trade relations deteriorated badly during the latter half of 2012 and Chinese government aircraft intruded into disputed airspace for the first time since 1958. China has sent drones to fly near the islands. Japan has threatened to shoot these down, which China has said would be an act of war. In the early 2010s, bilateral cooperation between China and Japan largely stopped as political tensions ran high. Abe strengthened the US-Japan alliance, cooperated with US President
Barack Obama's
Pivot to Asia policy, and adopted a strategy of containing and deterring China. In its 2013 white paper, Japan called recent Chinese actions "incompatible with international law." The paper also mentioned
Operation Dawn Blitz, after China had called for the exercise to be scaled back. The
Liberal Democratic Party that he led proposed constitutional revision, and changed the interpretation of the constitution in 2015 through the
Legislation for Peace and Security. American reporter Howard French states in 2017: :to turn on the television in China is to be inundated with war-themed movies, which overwhelmingly focus on Japanese villainy. More than 200 anti-Japanese films were produced in 2012 alone, with one scholar calculating that 70% of Chinese TV dramas involved Japan-related war plots....A prominent Chinese foreign-policy thinker who has had extensive contact with the country's leadership told me, "in meetings since Xi has been in power [2012] you could feel the hatred. Everything is about punishing Japan. Punishing this damned [Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo] Abe." The most high-profile action that hurt the bilateral relations would be Japanese Prime Ministers’ visits to Yasukuni Shrine, a place considered by most Chinese nationals as offensive because many WWII Japanese military criminals are worshipped there. China-Japan relations reached to the lowest point since the previous Prime Minister Koizumi's term because of his visit to the shrine. Nonetheless, Prime Minister Abe Shinzo also visited Yasukuni Shrine many times after he got re-elected in 2010, which triggered furious anti-Japanese protests in China due to the negative attitudes and perceptions between the two nations. In a sense, both Koizumi and Abe made “maverick behavior”, in specific making visits to the Yasukuni Shrine as the proof to exhibit nationalism ideology, which endangered the China-Japan relations into the worst phase. Relations between Japan and China improved in the wake of the
China–United States trade war. The improvement has been attributed to strong personal rapport between Shinzo Abe and
Xi Jinping, and to Japan's own trade disputes with the United States. Abe advised Xi on trade negotiations with U.S. president
Donald Trump. In May 2018, Chinese Premier
Li Keqiang visited Japan. From 25 to 27 October 2018, at the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Shinzo Abe paid an official visit to China.
2020s Sino-Japanese relations have experienced a thaw due to
novel coronavirus outbreak. On 15 January 2020, Japan has confirmed the first case of novel coronavirus, first identified in
Haneda Airport in
Tokyo that emerge from
Wuhan. With an ancient line of a poem by a Japanese emperor to a Chinese monk that inspired the latter to spread Buddhism to Japan: "Even though we live in different places, we live under the same sky" being tweeted out by government officials and with the stanza posted on the sides of boxes of face masks sent as aid to China. Japan's private sector has donated over 3 million face masks along with $6.3 million in monetary donation. China's Foreign Minister spokesperson
Geng Shuang lauded Japan for their support. Amidst the spread of
COVID-19 pandemic in Japan, China responded in kind by donating 12,500 COVID-19 test kits in aid to Japan after reports that the country was running low on test kits, with a
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson saying in Japanese that "China and Japan are neighboring countries separated by only a narrow strip of water. Although there are no borders in fight against the spread of virus." As of 4 June 2021, Japan also donated 1.24 million doses of
COVID-19 vaccines to Taiwan. This prompted a wave of gratitude from
Taiwanese people, whereas the Chinese foreign ministry condemned Japan's move. On 2 December 2021, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it had summoned Japan's ambassador in Beijing, Hideo Tarumi, over remarks made by former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on 1 December 2021 in support of Taiwan. In comments attributed to Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister.
Hua Chunying, Beijing said Tokyo's envoy had been summoned over Abe's "irresponsible" remarks which presented a "brutal intervention" in China's internal affairs. On 28 December 2021, both Japan and China agreed to set up a military hotline to defuse potential crises over disputed islands and the Taiwan Strait. (left) and China's paramount leader
Xi Jinping (right)
meet in San Francisco, United States in November 2023. On August 4, 2022, during
U.S. Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, China conducted "precision missile strikes" in the ocean near Taiwan of which 5 missiles landed in
Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone. China announced a ban on Japanese seafood imports following the 2023
Fukushima wastewater release, which remains a point of contention. In October 2023, Japan announced that it would expand anti-
dumping duties on certain Chinese products, including exports via third countries, in an effort to counteract Chinese
overproduction. In July 2024, Japanese media reported that a Japanese
destroyer sailed into China's waters, despite Chinese vessels warning it. Then on August 26, 2024, military aircraft from China briefly entered Japan's
airspace, which had not happened before. According to the
Ministry of Defense, the aircraft circled near the area around the
Danjo Islands before entering local airspace for two minutes, then heading back to mainland China. In response, China accused Japan of closely surveilling routine Chinese military activities and demanded an end to such operations. Similar confrontations had taken place the previous month, including a near encounter over the Pacific during joint operations involving two Chinese aircraft carriers.
2025–2026 diplomatic crisis In November 2025, Prime Minister
Sanae Takaichi stated that Chinese military actions against Taiwan, such as a naval blockade involving warships, could be seen as a "
existential crisis situation" for Japan, triggering its security laws to mobilize forces under "collective self-defense." In response, China's Consul General in Osaka
Xue Jian posted on social media that "the dirty head that sticks itself in must be cut off" and although the message was later deleted after protest by the Japanese government, it led to a
diplomatic crisis between China and Japan. Beijing argued Takaichi's statements violated the 1972 Japan-China agreement on Taiwan while Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary reaffirmed Japan's commitment to the agreement and hoped for a peaceful resolution. Takaichi clarified her remarks were "hypothetical." In addition to bipartisan calls in Japan for his expulsion, Xue's comment triggered criticism from the Taiwanese government and the U.S. ambassador to Japan while China condemned Takaichi's remarks. Japan and China issued mutual travel advisories and summoned the other country's ambassador. China subsequently dispatched
China Coast Guard vessels and military drones to patrol through the
Senkaku Islands. Additionally, the Chinese Commerce Ministry claimed that the trade cooperation between the two countries was "severely damaged" over Taiwan comments. On April 27, 2026, at a U.N. Security Council meeting, China responded to statements from Japan and the
European Union about the
South China Sea, rejecting their concerns and criticizing Japan's military activities in the
Taiwan Strait. China described the region as generally stable and defended its territorial claims, highlighting its focus on maintaining control over contested maritime areas while pushing back on international scrutiny. == Economic relations ==