China And Japan Brief Introduction

China suffered the worst of the two nations after trying to stand up to European powers during the Opium Wars and the anti-western Boxer Rebellion. Japan, however, embraced foreign ideas and was able to prove itself to be a threatening world power after their war with Russia.

The country of Japan is an island nation, which is separated from Mainland Asia by the Sea of Japan. (“Facts about Japan”)

During the early nineteenth century, both China and Japan enforced policies restricting foreign trade in order to avoid industrialization and western ideas, but after both societies experienced foreign invasions and unequal treaties being established by foreigners, Japan began to industrialize and became imperialists trying to create an empire, while China differed in that the people wanted reform and government restrained the reformation of their society, therefore causing multiple rebellions and overall the collapse of their empire.

China and Japan are too enormous and influential nations located in Eastern Asia. These two nations are almost always confused because of their similar culture and people, and they also happen to be right next to each other. Japan and China have never been allies and the two countries always seem to be in conflict. These two superpowers are very important to the world, and without them everything would be imbalanced in the global market. The rising superpower, China, is a nation that will continue to grow and improve their economy, while the fragile superpower, Japan, could fall apart at any moment and ruin the balance between all of the other countries.

In Japan, most of the Chinese influence was brought to Japan through Korea. Japan consists of four mountainous islands off the coast of Korea, and its early development reflected that of the mainland. There were several waves of immigrants that came to Japan. In about 10,000 B.C.E., the Jōmon people practiced hunting and fishing and made clay pots. People who immigrated from northeast Asia brought agriculture and Yayoi culture with them. Yayoi communities were distinguished by complex social organization containing rulers, soldier, artisans, and priests. Objects made in China and Korea could be found in Japan, which shows that people were traveling back and forth from Japan. More waves of immigrants came from Korea during the fourth through

China and Japan had similar but different experiences with the Western civilization. China and Japan reacted differently to the Western nations and it was China’s reactions to the West that would break the Chinese’s isolation leaving their traditions behind. The Industrial trade in Europe and the United States had created a gap between Asia and the West, This left china and Japan far behind technologically and they were not able to stand up against the western nations and although at different times China and Japan both ended up having to sign unequal treaties, and to open their ports for merchants.

Choose ONE topic. This is the “frame of reference” of the “context” within which you will compare and contrast two nations/periods.

China and Japan are two unique civilizations that went through similar, yet vastly different changes throughout their histories. Their growth and response to other nations differed in many ways in government, lifestyle, and general well-being. One of the main causes for such difference between the countries is the way the West influenced each region, and the way China and Japan responded to this influence. China focused more on the idea of being a "status oriented" society, while Japan was more "goal oriented" based. In China, anyone had the ability to better themselves and change their status through civil examinations given by the government. Western impact however slowly changed this old age system. Japan's caste system viewed

Japan and China have been in cold relations ever since the end of World War II. After the war, there was barely any diplomacy to bring together their relation. Not until 1972 Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka of Japan visited China with an official invitation. At the scene, both sides were willing for reconciliation and normalization, result with the Joint Communique between two governments. From that moment on, the (economic) relations of the two nations has been reestablished, encouraged and developed rapidly (China, Japan Joint Communique, 1972). There is an opinion that China’s incredible (economic) developing rate has greatly influenced Japan diplomatic with Beijing since that time. And this essay is going to support this argument with data as well as historical and contemporary context. First, energy requirement is usually critical to the development and modernization of China and the stabilization of Japan. Therefore, variables that related to it can influence both countries’ economic interest, lead to the consideration of policy makers. It is clear that both countries were in need of developing their gas and oil fields. Second, Japanese engagement into China market have changed a lot - Japanese companies and corporations were having decreasing influence on the economy of the client country - led to the need of adjusting investment policies within the government body. Third, China is modernizing and in many ways will be able to surpass Japan in near future. Therefore

Both Japan and China lie in the East of Asia. ‪To a certain extent，Japan and China own similar culture background, in the Confucian Cultural Circle. But when we look back into the modern history development, Japan and China made quite different decisions when facing the western countries’ aggression. China suffered the invasion in 1840 after the first Sino-British War. Japan was in a similar situation in the black boat incident in 1853, the Opium War made the West began to pay attention to East Asia. From then on, Japan began to face the western culture. ‬The reactions, as well as the result of Japan and China were quite disparate. This article wants to discuss what lead to the difference. ‬‬

It seems that China had a lot of influence over Japan. In religion, China was mostly Buddhist and Japan also took Buddhism as their main religion. Also, the Japanese learned to read Chinese and their letters were influenced by Chinese text. During the Chinese Tang Dynasty, Japan set up a bureaucracy, like China. Scholars were sent to learn China’s way of governing. I got to see a sample of Kanji, Japanese writing that was adapted from the Chinese ideographic form.

China and Japan had fallen on hard times leading up to the 19th and 20th Century. Both China and Japan reigned as perhaps the two most successful countries in east Asia for most of their storied histories. China had been the center of trade between the west and east for hundreds of years, and economically was as wealthy as one could imagine. Japan, residing on an island off the coast of Korea, was traditionally rather isolated through its rule by Shoguns and Samurai. However, several factors led to their eventual downfalls before they could recover. For China, a corrupt Qing rule, unbalanced trade relations with the west, and a country-wide opium crisis had set China back tremendously. Japan’s

Also, China is growing within an era of huge technological and world rapid political change. Japan, in the 1950’s to the 1980’s was operating in an era where change was not as rapid.

Throughout the dynasties in China and Japan, religion, economy and politics have been affected by each other in various ways. In the book “Religion and Making of Modern East Asia”, Thomas Dubois brings to light the impact religion made on both politics and economy in China and Japan throughout the historical period up till date. In his words, he describes “religion as an extremely political force” (Dubois, 2011, pp. 7-16). As various religions were introduced, it shaped the politics of leaders as most of them saw it as an avenue to impose their religion on the citizens. In all, religion invented political and economic stabilities and instabilities in various dynasties throughout Japan and China

Japan, the Land of the Rising Sun, is an island in East Asia in the Pacific Ocean. Its capital is Tokyo and the national language is Japanese. Japan is considered a great power and is a member of both the United Nations and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The country enjoys a highly skilled work force and is considered to have one of the most highly educated countries in the world. At one point, the 2000s, Japan also laid claim to providing 4 of 5 top circulated newspapers in the world. (Foreign & Commonwealth Office, 2017) (OECD, 2017)