THE GLOBAL TIMES (China), CHINA TIMES (Taiwan)
BEIJING - What do the Chinese people appreciate most from Japan? Adult videos and their actresses, answered the Chinese according to a large-scale online survey conducted last week by the Global Times, a state-owned Beijing daily.
Just as China and Japan have marked the 40th anniversary of their normalization of diplomatic relations on September 29, the recent disputes between the two countries over the sovereignty of the Diaoyu- Senkaku Islands, have soured the two neighbors’ relationship. Both sides cancelled a series of official celebrations planned for last week.
To investigate the public’s perception of Japan and their views on Sino-Japanese relations, the Global Times put together a questionnaire composed of 17 questions covering issues such as the dissemination of Japanese culture, the stance of the Japanese Prime Minister on China, the inter-dependence of the two nations, and the future prospects for China-Japan relations.
The first question was: “What do you like most about Japan?” Out of the 34,000 netizens who voted, 32.9% said that what they appreciated most were adult videos and their female stars, referred to as AV and AV idol respectively in Japan and China, followed by Japanese dedication to work and politeness (26.6%), and also animation products (13.8%).
Sola Aoi, a very popular Japanese AV idol with millions of Facebook followers in China, claimed two weeks ago that “as the Diaoyou Islands belong to China, Sola Aoi belongs to the world,” reported the China Times.
The Japanese government’s nationalization of the disputed islands, an act qualified as a “farce” by China’s Vice-President Xi Jinping, has caused the biggest conflict since the resumption of diplomatic ties between China and Japan, resulting in days of violent protests in dozens of Chinese cities.
Many Japanese manufacturers and Japanese stores had to shut down after being targeted in the riots. Boycotting or destroying Japanese goods has become the biggest channel for expressing anti-Japan sentiment.
It’s not surprising that in the same survey 40.6% of respondents said resolutely that they would not use Japanese goods again.
Though, when asked “Do you think you know Japan?” only 41.1% said they did, whereas 33.9% claimed that they didn’t, and another 25% answered they couldn’t tell.
As for the inter-dependence of the two close economic partners, 56.8% of those polled said they believe that China is very important to Japan whereas 51.9% said they considered Japan’s importance to China as “ordinary.”
