Misperception and the Replication of Mistrust: A Theoretical and Empirical Research on the Mechanism of the Replication of Sino-Japanese Mistrust

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26780101
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: International relations
• Research Institution: Niigata University
• Principal Investigator: ZHANG YUN 新潟大学, 経営戦略本部, 准教授 (70447613)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 日中関係 / 誤認知 / 国際関係理論 / 3.11災害外交 / 相互不信 / 東日本大震災

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Both China and Japan have showed their intentions and efforts for building mutual trust, but the mutual mistrust has deepened. Why did this seemingly abnormal situation happen?　The representative case is the failure of the 3.11 disaster diplomacy between China and Japan.
A theoretical and empirical nexus approach is employed to answer the aforementioned puzzle. This research firstly introduces the theories of misperception in international relations and presents the theoretical basis of the tragic replication of misperception and mistrust. Then it uses the failure of Sino-Japanese disaster diplomacy with the 3.11 Great East Japan Earthquake as a case example showing that even the initial gestures of goodwill could be distorted by the biased perceptual lens to produce even more mistrust.

Free Research Field

国際関係論