The term `soft power', coined by Joseph Nye in his 1990 Foreign Policy article of the same title, has been cited by academics, politicians and the mass media with varying degrees of confusion and hype. To some the term has meant the influence of Hollywood film culture around the world; to others, it refers to the economic power exerted by Western countries. In most cases, soft power has been associated with nation states and their national interests. However, for many people, the term is a vague concept with no real meaning. In order to develop a more precise view of soft power, this thesis begins with an examination of how power has been conceived of in international relations, by reviewing the main historical schools of thought in the field, i. e. the Realist, Liberalist, Critical and Constructivist schools. It then goes on to propose a theory of soft power based upon Constructivist ideas. To test the application of this conceptualisation of soft power, this study addresses the case of Japan's post-war relations with China, utilising analyses of three agents of Japan's soft power. Firstly, at the state level, the activities of the Japan Foundation in China are investigated. Secondly, at the sub-state level, Kobe City's sister city relationship with Tianjin City, and its relations with other cities in China, are considered. Finally, at the non-governmental level, the activities of the Japan-China Friendship Association are examined. Through an analysis of soft power at the state, sub-state and non-state levels, this thesis aims to provide a deeper understanding of soft power, and Japan's international relations as an example of its application.

This dissertation investigates the importance of discourse in the formation and effectiveness of foreign policy decisions in China. Building on the growing trend in Sino-Japanese research, and international relations research, which acknowledges the impact of domestic factors, such as public opinion and the media on political decision-making, this study argues that the way an object exists in the dominant discourse affects the way it can be treated by politicians. Focusing on the points in modern Chinese history, during which the Chinese government desired to implement a policy or campaign regarding Japan which appeared to contradict the prevailing way in which Japan was represented in the People’s Daily – for example a policy which was anti-Japanese in character when the discourse was Japan friendly – this study examines how the discourse affected the government’s desire to implement such a policy, and the policy itself. With the help of qualitative research software, NVivo, and Critical Discourse Analysis, Qualitative Content Analysis and historical analysis, data pooled from People’s Daily articles throughout the years 1949-2005, as well as policy documents are analysed, to answer the central research question: does the discourse in the People’s Daily have an effect upon the Chinese government’s practice of foreign policy? As it goes through the history of modern China comparing foreign policy decisions to the discursive environment in which they were made, this dissertation highlights the importance of qualitative, longitudinal research in the study of media effects, and aims to contribute with this not just to Sino-Japanese relations research, but also to the study of media effects in general, and international relations.

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The thesis presents a way of interpreting problems and disputes between China and Japan through identifying distrust in Sino-Japanese relations. It is abnormal that the two former rivals still could not move forward from the legacies of history while the status quo of the rise of China brings more problems. One explanation would be that the continuous mutual distrust with an asymmetric structure on different core concerns of strategic and moral issues leads to the locked Sino-Japanese relations. The thesis argues that both of the two countries distrust each other while the priori concerns are different. Japan concentrates on the strategic issues and China currently pays more attention on the moral issues. The different priorities lead to a lack of motivation of the two countries to make compromises to solve the problems from the other’s perspective. Hence, the thesis will try to verify the existence of mutual distrust and the asymmetric structure and examine the impacts of distrust on interstate relations. The analysis on the governmental discourse and existing policies and activities of the two countries will be the main method. The qualitative analysis on the essence of discourse and the quantitative verification of the reliability will be used in the case studies for the empirical materials collected. Besides, to collect information from the academic and public levels, the thesis will use the secondary data from the existing public opinion polls and conduct a small scale interview on both Chinese and Japanese scholars. In general, the results show that the asymmetric mutual distrust greatly contributes to the current Sino-Japanese contradictions. The two countries might keep suffering from it in a long term before the potential recommendations on trust-building and distrust-eliminating processes could effectively work.

The period of Koizumi Jun’ichirō’s tenure as prime minister of Japan from 2001 until 2006 was marked by a significant downturn in Sino-Japanese relations. One of the major causes of this deterioration was his repeated visits to Yasukuni Shrine, a controversial Shinto shrine in Tokyo that honours Japan’s war dead, including a number of ‘class A’ war criminals. China’s response was to seek to isolate the Japanese leader and refuse to allow formal bilateral summits whilst he continued the practice of visiting the shrine. Despite a handful of brief meetings in third countries, this meant that China and Japan went for a period of five years without a formal summit, representing the frostiest period of relations since the signing of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship in 1978. This thesis explores China’s response to the shrine issue at this time through a combination of methodologies including content analysis across different categories of Chinese media reports and a series of in-depth interviews with policy-makers, advisors, analysts, diplomats and academics in both China and Japan. It posits a theory rooted in the constructivist school of International Relations (IR) that is influenced by the notion of structuration posited by Anthony Giddens. Using this theory it hypothesises that a normative or ideationally structural relationship guides the behaviour of both China and Japan as actors within the bilateral relationship, whilst simultaneously allowing both to retain the agency to affect these structures through their own actions, either consciously or otherwise. Through the analysis of the Yasukuni Shrine issue and a further case study of the dispute over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands the results support this hypothesis, showing that China not only retains agency within these ideational and normative structures but actively strategises in order to shape them in its own interests.

In the last two decades, against the backdrop of multiple anti-foreign protests in China, among which the anti-Japanese protests were prominent, debates emerged over the rise and meaning of Chinese nationalism. This thesis analyses the nature and formation of China’s nationalism towards Japan, with an emphasis on bottom-up manifestations of nationalism. The analysis compares the anti-Japanese demonstrations and boycotts of 2010 and 2012 triggered by disputes over the contested Diaoyu/Senkaku islands in the East China Sea. The current literature on Chinese nationalism is largely dominated by top-down perspectives which neglect the prospect of a nationalism separate from the state. This thesis argues that it is not only that bottom-up and top-down forces coexist, but that they interact in a dynamic and bidirectional process. This interaction, explained through Giddens’ structuration theory and Wendt’s constructivist theory, is significant in understanding how nationalism is shaped. In the detailed analysis of nationalism theories of instrumentalism, along with those of primordialism and ethnosymbolism are used. It is through these lenses that each step of the “nationalism” is studied - from history and triggers of nationalism to popular manifestations, current discussions of nationalism and its effect on China’s domestic and foreign policy. By placing China into the historical context of the last century, it is shown that anti-Japanese feelings in China are the result of embedded memories of war and a need of unifying the nation against Imperial Japan, rather than purely the result of a political machination. History, combined with threat perception and China’s development, led to large anti-Japanese manifestations over the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands in 2010 and 2012. The authorities employed a number of strategies in order to tone down these events domestically. Through interviews conducted with Chinese academics, researchers, protesters and activists, and discourse analysis applied to state media, it was identified that history, territorial sovereignty, mistrust and reactiveness to Japan’s actions frame the meaning of anti-Japanese nationalism in China. These shared themes brought together a wide spectrum of state and non-state actors, who put aside their dichotomous views over loyalty to the Party-state and loyalty to the nation, and showed their support for the Chinese government. The problematic effects of this type of “unified anti-Japanese nationalism” are that domestically it sets restrictive “standards” for what it means to be a “good nationalist” in China; internationally, it raises serious concerns over China’s foreign policy should a fatal Sino-Japanese accident in the East China Sea occur. The substance of Chinese nationalism may be indicative of the type of international power that China aspires to be and informs the domestic challenges that may influence its external behaviour. By understanding the substance of nationalism, China’s perceptions of itself and “the other”, as well as its intentions home and abroad are captured. Policymakers within China and abroad should not ignore the challenges nationalism poses at the domestic level; they should look into the intricate disputes and negotiations among state and non-state actors, driven not only by economic and political calculations, but by a shared past and emotions that contribute to the internal dynamic of Chinese nationalism.