Abstract
China’s propaganda aimed at Japan has been favorably accepted by the
Japanese mass media since diplomatic relations resumed between China and Japan.
China had a favorable opportunity to enhance its international presence in
the spring of 2003, when a young Premier came to power and China launched a
diplomatic initiative to solve the North Korea issue. However, there was a possibility
that the SARS epidemic would have adverse effects on China’s propaganda
aimed at Japan. The objective of this study is to reveal how the SARS
epidemic influenced China’s propaganda aimed at Japan in Japanese newspapers.
The results of the analysis verified that Japanese newspapers covered
mainly economic stagnation between China and Japan due to the spread of
SARS rather than anxiety over the state of hygiene management in China. In
addition, it was found that whenever the suppression of information was taken
up in Japan a timely rebuttal was issued by the Chinese government in order
to lessen negative effects on the propaganda aimed at Japan.
