Understanding Japan-China Relations: Theories and Issues.

Tyson, Katherine T.

Understanding Japan-China Relations: Theories and Issues. By Ming Wan. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, 2015. 288 pp. $132.00 (cloth).

Reviewed by Katherine T. Tyson, Department of Politics and International Relations, St. Antony's College, University of Oxford doi: 10.1017/jea.2016.40

Ming Wan's book is a broad analysis of the bilateral relationship between Japan and China, trying to understand and explain what, how, and who is driving the reconciliation and tensions among two East Asian superpowers. Wan attempts to bring in both mainstream international relation theories as well as novel theories involving management, domestic politics, nationalism, identity, and coevolution to help illustrate and explain the interactions between Japan and China.

The importance of this book is in its novel evaluation of the Sino-Japanese relationship. Ming Wan guides his analysis with a framework focused on the idea that how the governments respond to each other will depend principally on the political management of diplomacy rather than the structure of the international system. This means that the future interaction is in the hands of the actors instead of being predetermined by the international structure within which they are operating. Specifically, Wan applies this to the relationship between Japan and China, and he seeks to demonstrate that the roots of the current relationship are found within mismanagement of the political situation.

Ming Wan breaks down the book into two distinct parts, beginning with the theories that can help explain the Sino-Japanese relationship, then moving on to the ways these theories operate in five distinct issue areas between Japan and China: 1) The redress movement; 2) Taiwan; 3) rare-earth Metals; 4) ODA programs; and 5) The Trans-Pacific Partnership. The book is presented as a theoretical contribution and has a constant thread that searches to understand the degree of hostility and/or friendship between Japan and China at different periods of time.

The book is exhaustive in its use of newspaper and archival references, and it is perfect for anyone unaware of the two countries' history and in need of a chronological list of events and actors. Japan and China have had a close and distinct relationship with each other for millennia, and this book highlights the changes that have taken place with different degrees of contact between the two countries. While Wan covers a long history, his primary focus is on the ebb and flow of the Sino-Japanese relationship since the 1972 reconciliation and how increased tensions have been eased or grown worse through the process of increased interdependence and globalization, with particular attention paid to the September 2010 Fishing Boat crash as an organizing moment in current Sino-Japanese relations. The book acts as an elaborate articulation of journalistic events through the prism of international and domestic theories.

The book has a broad scope, and there are many contributions made to our understanding of Sino-Japanese relations that highlight current issues; however, some of the theorization and evidence given doesn't leave a feeling of confidence in the analysis. The facts laid out are exhaustive, but the causal mechanisms are at times lacking as some theories rest on assumptions that are asserted with insufficient validity.

Wan relies on the fishing boat collision of 2010 to illustrate Japanese party politics, with very little analysis on the role of China in the conflict. The unequal focus on Japan and the simplistic generalization of the Japanese bureaucracy, the LDP and the DPJ, leave the concluding assertions regarding the rising hostilities between Japan and China on weak causal grounds. Conversely, the discussion of national identities in Sino-Japanese relations demonstrates a compelling and well-founded analysis on the degree of stickiness, saliency of identity complexes, and compartmentalization of identity in the foreign policy of each respective country as they've evolved in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Unfortunately, that compelling comparative analysis breaks down later, as the United States is brought in to extrapolate Japanese views on the Sino-US relationship. Here the analysis is again too focused on Japan, with weak references to China. The use of polling data is admirable, but the cross comparison between China and Japan isn't compelling in the design and scope of the questions. Wan abruptly brings in "reciprocal evolutionary change between interacting species" developed by the evolutionary biologist John N. Thompson to aid in explaining the interactions between China and Japan. While co-evolution may generate interesting and valuable contributions to the understanding of bilateral relationships moving forward, the interjection was jarring and underutilized in the remainder of the book. The use of biological terms clouds the discussion instead of clarifying the relationship between Japan and China.

The lopsided analysis of Japan over China leaves an incomplete theoretical background that is then used as a lens to analyze the redress movement, Taiwan, rare-earth metals, ODA programs, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. This could be due to the availability of reference material such as polling, diet records, and news sources in Japan but it leaves the understanding of the bilateral relationship underdeveloped. The specific issues rely on these theories to be generalized so as to highlight trends between China and Japan, but they rely on an unsatisfactory theoretical framework. However, the facts presented are still copious and anyone who cares about East Asian studies will find the material being addressed fascinating and stimulating.

Of particular merit is the analysis of the forced labor redress movement in Japan. It highlights one of the foundational diplomatic and ethical dilemmas facing Sino-Japanese relations and Wan synthesizes the issue beautifully. The handling of Taiwan is thought provoking but falters in exploring fully and convincingly the role the US has played in the Japanese position on Taiwan. Later discussions have a fundamental flaw in that the material being studied relies on unsubstantiated substitutions of rare-earth metals and the Japanese ODA program in the Sino-Japanese bilateral relationship. Finally, his assessment of the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership is an interesting and current case study.

This book is commendable for its content and the wealth of knowledge it provides in terms of history and exposure to current issues between the two East Asian neighbors, but the utility of the book as a theoretical tool is suspect given the reliance on newspapers, discussions, and dissimilar polling data to support many of the assertions. The internal mechanisms driving actions are not evaluated to be as generalizable as Ming Wan ends up articulating. Even with these flaws it is a significant contribution to the narrative on Sino-Japanese relations.