Coevolution and Sino-Japanese Tensions

Unlike those who blame the other side or structural forces beyond one's control for the current Sino-Japanese tensions, this paper offers a theoretical insight about the coevolution between China and Japan to explain why the two Asian great powers that had a better relationship in the past are now experiencing greater tensions when their much closer economic and people-to-people ties should facilitate greater cooperation. The two nations have coevolved over millennia with increasing intensity over time. They avoided serious tensions in the 1970s-1990s partly thanks to each being situated in a different niche. But that separation has diminished in a globalizing world and the two countries are becoming more integrated, which has triggered a backlash. The earlier generation of proponents of Sino-Japanese friendship succeeded in forging strong economic and social ties, but the current generation finds it difficult politically and psychologically to manage the new reality in their relations.