Why do you think China is has antipathy towards Japan? Well, Beijing promotes antipathy but never tells the people Japan is one of China's biggest trade partners.
To get to the point, Chinese people are exposed to propaganda against Japan from grade school.
Anti-Japanese sentiment makes it easy to control the people by using them as political tools. When the CCP needs a bunch of people to protest against Japan, they have willing volunteers to hold signs and banners on which are written nasty stuff about Japan.
Additionally, the resulting prejudice may also cause backlash against people in the Japanese diasphora who never were born in Japan, and are mostly English-speaking Americans & Canadians, and Portuguese-speaking Brazilians.
When I first talked with Chhinese people on the internet, even I got the anti-Japanese sentiment. I had to explain to them that I was born in Canada, and hold no ties to Japan at all.
To the best of my knowledge I like whatever is progressive in Japan. Anyone Japanese who transcends the tradition-only mentality is a liberal-minded trail-blazer.
What I object to strongly is the fascist zealotry of Japanese ultra-nationalists who demand the Japanese Prime Minister keep his responsibility to honor the war dead at Yasakuni Shrine.
In memory there was one Japanese PM who didn't honor this traditional commitment, but he had a short run in the Japanese Diet.
Anti-Japanese sentiments are usually the work of propaganda. Yet we only see it in the People's Republic of China and occasionally in Tawianese politics.
From what I have observed, South East Asia has abandoned such sentiments because Japanese industries have invested in countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
Indeed, there also is a strong following of JPOP stars in SE Asian, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Since we know that propaganda published by the CCP gets spoon-fed to Chinese people from cradle to grave, it would be interesting to see if Chinese international students going to universities in the West have strong anti-Japanese sentiments.
In conclusion I find the Youtube video included with this blog post to be apt. In contrast, the anti-American movie PROPAGANDA reveals more about Chinese propaganda and its effect on Chinese citizens than it does about America as land of decadent hedonism. Though, the majority of American propaganda is marketing consumer products to the consumers, who get indoctrinated on how to be successful as consumers.
YMMV
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