The Soft Power

Since the1990s, the theory of soft power advancedby Joseph S. Nye has aroused widespread discussion and putinto practice in the world. Soft power is more and moreimportant to big powers, and has considerably strategicsignificance to the development and relations of China andJapan. After comparisons between the soft power of China andJapan from five aspects: culture, developmental pattern,political values, international strategy and national image, thearticle thinks: In the culture aspect, China has more traditionalcultural resources which generate very considerable softpower; however, the current situation of China’s modern cultureand culture industry of China is far behind that of Japan; the softpower of China’s and Japan’s culture is almost on a par. In thedevelopment pattern aspect, China pattern has richerconnotations, more successful practice, more widespread andprofounder influence than Japan pattern; China pattern hasmore soft power than Japan pattern. In the political valuesaspect, China’s political values have more connotations thanJapan’s; nevertheless, practice records of China’s politicalvalues is not ideal; there is still certain gap between China’s softpower of political values and Japan’s. In the level ofparticipation in the international regime, compared with Japan,there is still some way to go for China; in the level of buildingthe international regime, the two country have a matched rivalcurrently, but China has huge potential and longterm advantagein the future; China and Japan both can’t beat each other in thesoft power of international strategy aspect at present. In the national image aspect, China has more international influencethan Japan, but China’s national image is inferior to Japan inmany cases; what’s more, the key elements shaping China’snational image still exist many shortages; there is a gapbetween the soft power of China’s national image and that ofJapan. In view of the above, China must place soft powerconstruction at a strategic height in the future, and takemeasures to develop soft power unswervingly, which issuggested as follows: maintain rapid and sound economicdevelopment, improve the internal governance, push culturalmodernization forward, participate in the international regimedeeply and enhance the international communication ability.