Analysis of Japan’s Public Diplomacy toward China

In March 2011, a major nuclear accident occurred at the Fukushima nuclear power plant due to the Great East Japan Earthquake. Afterwards, nuclear contamination around Fukushima Prefecture had a significant negative impact on the reputation of Japan in China. As a response to these adverse impacts on reputation, Japanese governments and relevant institutions performed a series of public diplomacy measures to China aimed at improving the images impaired by harmful rumors. This article examined Japan’s public diplomacy measures toward China during this incident, using the pathways of connections as the framework for study and analyzing three representative Japanese governmental bodies that played critical roles in the public diplomacy process, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Economic, Trade and Industry and Fukushima Prefecture Government. This article found that the Japanese government mainly pursued its public diplomacy in China by amplifying the appeal of Fukushima, promoting a target-driven “direct influence” to cultivate partners in China, organizing a multi-sectoral public diplomacy model, re-framing the issue of the Fukushima nuclear accident with intentional reticence and using diversified media promotion channels. Consequently, this article concludes that the effectiveness of Japan’s diplomacy toward China was negatively affected by the lack of a political solution, the weak connectivity between the negative impression and attractiveness, the long-standing bias of Chinese public opinion against negative information about Japan and the inconsistency between internal and external actions in the response to adverse impact on reputation in Fukushima nuclear accident.