Abstract
The rise of China has been observed by a variety of social scientists worldwide for more than a decade. Experts on international politics discuss China’s security policies and diplomatic strategies in terms of power transition from the United States and new types of regional cooperation, including the Belt and Road Initiative（BRI）. Scholars in international economics analyze new international trade structures and the restructuring of Foreign Direct Investment（FDI）to China. Between these two areas of research, however, there is a huge space for sociopsychological research.
In fact, the biggest aporia is the fact that intellectual efforts still lack an understanding of how to reduce the gap between China and its neighboring countries’ perceptions and evaluations of its rise.
Based on this observation, the author has been studying undergraduate students in top-tier universities in Asia to examine how they evaluate bilateral relations with foreign countries, particularly China. Our research revealed that（1）different frames on the rise of China have been coexisting in Asian countries, which makes it difficult to understand each country’s perceptions toward the rise of China; (2）a variety of domestic and international environments in each country are creating unique evaluations of China; and（3）Japan’s views toward China are more severe than those of the other Asian counterparts.
Data from the annual Japan-China Joint Opinion Survey, conducted by The Genron NPO since 2005, tells us that Japan’s views toward China had not improved as of 2018, while China’s views toward Japan have been improving since 2013. All these findings pose a series of questions regarding why the Japanese view China thus.
