Editorial

15:00 JST, August 19, 2025

China is trying to stir up patriotic sentiment by emphasizing this year as the “80th anniversary of victory in the war of resistance against Japan.” These efforts contain a notable amount of elements meant to stir up anti-Japanese sentiment, and the negative impact they will have on Japan-China relations is nothing but worrisome.

Since the start of this summer, a number of films about the war of resistance have been released in China. In late July, a film was released about the 1937 Nanjing Incident involving the former Japanese military.

State-run media have been reporting daily on the box office success of the films. It is clear that the government is promoting them. On Chinese social media, video clips such as one in which a child repeatedly hits the Japanese archipelago in a map........

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