‘Cold politics’ in current Japan–China relations is accelerating the termination of Japan’s yen loans to China. This situation is in turn generating official development assistance (ODA) ‘friction’, which aggravates the‘ cold politics’. Why has post-war reconciliation betweenJapan and China become deadlocked? Didn’t Japan’s economic cooperation with China, including ODA, contribute to post-war reconciliation?
The government of Japan has made post-war reparation part of its post-war settlements.However, the diverse forms of the post-war settlements, the controversial concept of post-war reparation, and the divergence between the domestic and international law concepts of reparations have made it more difficult for Japan to link post-war settlements with post-war reconciliation.
Approaches to post-war settlements with Asian countries have centered on reparation and cooperation in order to achieve reconstruction. However, the governments of the PRC and Taiwan both renounced reparation claims against Japan because of the Cold War and the “two Chinas” issue. This is why China accepted ODA without receiving reparation beforehand.
From the perspective of the post-war reconciliation process, China’s renunciation of its reparation claims in the Japan–China Joint Statement of 1972 can be seen as its willingness for reconciliation with Japan in return for Japan’s expression of remorse. However, Japan did not make clear within what framework it accepted China’s renunciation of its reparation claims. In1979, Prime Minister Masahiro Ohira, who had been Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1972, launched ODA to China. While Japan has not referred to a link between the renunciation of reparation claims and the launch of ODA, China has often touched upon such a link.
The basic structure of the Japan–China relationship that Ohira attempted to create (the ‘1979regime’) rests on the following three pillars: (i) the ‘1972 regime’ (based upon an understanding of the Taiwan issue, the history issue, etc.); (ii) an understanding of Japan’s active support for China’s economic reconstruction, and its reform and open-door policy; and(iii) establishing long-term friendly relations with China.
The ‘1979 regime’ is also a political structure that has been shaped by multiple factors such as international and domestic political crises in both Japan and China, in addition to elements associated with the post-war settlement. Therefore the‘ 1979 regime’ was formed in the contexts of both crisis and reconciliation, and economic cooperation based on the reconciliation context has helped to promote the process of reconciliation.
However, the reconciliation process is now drifting; completion of this process will require joint efforts by Japan and China to formulate new international policies, or in other words, peacebuilding policies.

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