On the afternoon of September 21, 2023, the seminar on Sino-Japanese Relations on the occasion of the 45th Anniversary of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship Between China and Japan, was held in the North Pavilion, under the co-sponsorship of the Institute of International and Strategic Studies (IISS), Peking University (PKU) and Yamanashi Gakuin University (YGU) in Japan.The seminar featured prominent academics including Xiong Dayun, Professor at the Faculty of Law and Director of the Global Learning Center at YGU, Nomura Chikako, Professor at the Faculty of Business Administration at YGU, Liu Xing, Professor at the Faculty of Law and Deputy Director of the Global Learning Center at YGU, Li Hanmei, Professor at the School of International Studies (SIS), PKU, Bai Zhili, Professor at the School of Government, PKU, and Associate Prof. Gui Yongtao, Vice President of the IISS, and Associate Dean of the SIS, PKU. The seminar was chaired by Prof. Yu Tiejun, President of the IISS, and Associate Prof. Guan Guihai, Executive Vice President of the IISS, PKU. President Yu Tiejun delivered concluding remarks and provided a summary of the meeting. Dong Congli, Postdoctoral Fellow at the SIS, PKU, attended the meeting.

In his speech, Prof. Xiong Dayun noted that in the context of the current Sino-U.S. competition, given the geographic, political, and historical factors of China and Japan, as well as the realities of the Japan-U.S. alliance and Asian geopolitics, Japan maintains a biased neutrality between China and the United States, providing lateral support to the U.S. strategy towards China within a controllable range. Prof. Nomura Chikako introduced the impact, features, responses, and preventive measures of scandals in Japanese enterprises, pointing out that Japanese companies are increasingly valuing the opinions of various stakeholders, with many corporations making efforts in social responsibility. Prof. Liu Xing highlighted that on the basis of the Japan-U.S. alliance, Japan is enhancing cooperation in international security by building a united front under the "Indo-Pacific Strategy", consolidating relation with NATO, and cooperating with the United States and South Korea. Prof. Li Hanmei reviewed the internal driving forces in the historical development of China-Japan relations, stressing that the focus of China-Japan relations has shifted from economy to politics, with the mutual needs between the two countries seemingly gradually diminishing, leading to a lack of momentum in the current development of their relations. Prof. Bai Zhili believes that individual independence is an important part of Japan's modern thinking, and only by fundamentally understanding Japanese society can one better understand Japan's domestic and foreign affairs. Associate Professor Gui Yongtao pointed out that the opportunities for the stable China-Japan relations mainly lie in the economic field, while the challenges come more from the political and security fields, with the Taiwan issue likely to be the core issue affecting China-Japan relations in the short term. The participants unanimously agreed that in the face of many challenges in China-Japan relations, it is even more important to revisit the spirit of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship Between China and Japan, strengthen people-to-people exchanges between China and Japan, and promote mutual understanding between the two countries.

In the discussion session, the attending guests, teachers and students engaged in lively discussions on topics such as how Japan handles its relations with world powers, the interaction of economic and political relations among countries, the evolution of Japan-U.S. defense relations, and the impact of Japan's “local government” diplomacy on China-Japan relations.

Editor: Li Fangqi Photographer: Zheng Peijie