For further promoting the mutual understanding between peoples of China and Japan, enhancing people-to-people cooperation and improving Sino-Japanese relations, the Chinese Association for International Understanding (CAFIU) and The Japan-China Society jointly organized the first essay contest on China-Japan friendship.

 

All Japanese citizens aged between 15 and 45 are eligible to take part in this contest. Based on the status quo of China-Japan relations and the heat topic of the “Belt and Road” initiative in Japanese society, the contest set two topics, namely enhance China-Japan friendship via people-to-people exchange and the “Belt and Road”: new opportunities of Sino-Japanese trade cooperation.

 

The contest won the support from various institutions such as the Chinese Embassy in Japan, China-Japan Friendship Association, People China magazine and The Mainichi, and received warm response from all walks of society of Japan. Many friendly organizations and people who wish to boost bilateral relations vied in forwarding the notes of the contest. Some organizations even posted the introduction of the contest on magazines and the Internet, and actively recommended young people to take part in it.

 

The Japanese side gave a positive response to the contest. In the end of September 2016, after two rounds of detailed assessment by an eight-member panel, five people were awarded the prize of excellence and another 29 people got the ordinary award.

 

The articles submitted to the contest reflected the following features: First, the young generation of Japan showed their enthusiasm for the contest. All the participants noticed the great achievements made by China and expressed their readiness of enhancing China-Japan relations. Based on their own experience of working in associations or taking part in commercial activities, many participants expressed their friendly feelings towards China and their expectations on win-win cooperation between both countries. Prize winner Inoue Jungjun said in his article themed Post-90s of Japan and China that the experience of studying in Beijing when he was 18 completely changed his knowledge about China. Chinese friends were frank, sturdy, active, and strong in taking actions, which left him with a deep impression. However, a survey on both countries made in last year showed that negative impression on Japan among Chinese young people was gradually easing, while negative view on China among Japanese people as a whole was deteriorating. The reason was that there were many different perspectives for Chinese people to look at Japan while negative reports on China made by Japanese media misled Japanese people. Even so, Inoue Jungjun is still willing to communicate and work pleasantly with Chinese friends. The generation of post-90s will shoulder the great responsibilities of bilateral relations development in 20 or 30 years and we should work from now on to boost China-Japan friendship, said Inoue Jungjun in his essay. Prize winner Tani Kunyong said in his article themed Promote China-Japan Friendship via People-to-people Exchange that as neighbors, both China and Japan used Chinese characters and our languages shared a large part in common. As the world’s second and third largest economies, the friendship between China and Japan was not only beneficial to both countries, but also beneficial to the peace and development of the world. Second, people-to-people exchange could play a positive role in promoting mutual understanding and improving bilateral relations. Prize winner Kajiwara Mika said in her essay that she once participated in Project Hope of China. In the process of communication, there was misunderstanding and hardship, but she benefited a lot. With ten years of development-oriented poverty relief, the express way connecting Fengning County of Hebei Province has run into operation and prairie tourism has become a new source of income for local residents. Poverty alleviation of China was becoming more and more environmental-friendly. Project Hope enabled more kids having the opportunities of going to school and pursuing their dreams, and they are bound to play their due role for the bright future of both countries. Ordinary award winner Yoshikawa Yuta said in his article that with more than 30 years’ rapid development, the global impact of China has improved dramatically. As a great power, the “new normal” and the “Belt and Road” demonstrated China’s efforts of promoting domestic development and shouldering international responsibilities. Currently, as bilateral relations development confronted with some difficulties, the economic and cultural circles should establish more exchange platforms and strive to strengthen people-to-people communication and exchange in areas which can draw the interest of both sides. In the future, China and Japan should develop people-to-people partnership relations via economic cooperation. “Promote official relations by developing people-to-people friendship” should become an important element in improving bilateral relations. Third, the participants proposed many suggestions on developing bilateral relations and conducting people-to-people exchange. Some suggested building mutual respect at both national level and personal level; some suggested building more exchange platforms for youngsters; and others suggested integrating resources of friendly exchange and developing new forms of friendship-building activities.

 

The five prize winners will be invited by CAFIU to pay a visit to China on February 2017.