From "Participant" To "Spectator":Two Trade Wars In The Japanese Media

In 2018,the United States launched the largest trade war in its economic history to date.As the world’s top two economies,the risk of trade friction is not only detrimental to both China and the United States,but also has a negative impact on the stable development of the global economy.In the context of globalization,Japan,as a member of the Japan-US alliance and an important player in the East Asian economic sphere,will find it difficult to stay out of it.The trade war between the U.S.and China is considered to be the most important economic issue of the day,and the Japanese media have reported on it closely,both in terms of concern that the U.S.’s hard-line protectionism will aggravate the chaos in the world,and in the hope that they can serve as a bridge between the U.S.,Europe and China.In terms of news coverage,the Japanese media have often portrayed China as contradictory,both as a production base with some uncertainty and as an attractive consumer market.However,in the current study,there is a lack of comparison between the Japanese media coverage related to the Japan-US trade war in the last century and the present-day coverage related to the China-US friction.The Japan-U.S.trade war that took place in the late1900 s and the ongoing China-U.S.trade war are arguably the two largest trade frictions in two centuries.For Japan,the two trade frictions between Japan and the U.S.are no different from each other,but the U.S.has only changed its targets,so Japan,as a bystander in the trade war,is not free from the interests involved,and its mentality in reporting on the trade war will be different.The differences found in the comparative study can reveal the kind of power relations that influence Japan’s choice of reporting framework and the expression of its position.The Nihon Keizai Shimbun is one of the top five national newspapers in Japan,and it is more influential in reporting on international political and economic issues than the other four major newspapers.This study uses content analysis and textual analysis to analyze the headlines of the Nikkei Shimbun’s reports on the Japan-U.S.trade war and the China-U.S.trade war by applying the three-level framework theory,and by conducting basic statistics on the topics of the reports at the high level,the graphic structure of the reports at the medium level,and the language and symbols at the low level,to deeply analyze the transmission of its discourse and the hidden ideology and power relations behind it,and to study the The study examines the frame presentation and discourse expression of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun in the two different trade wars.The study concludes that the Nihon Keizai Shimbun focused on domestic economic changes when reporting on the "Japan-U.S.trade war",showing friendly hopes for the de-escalation of Japan-U.S.relations and the pursuit of Japan-U.S.cooperation,and constructing a positive outlook as a participant;while when reporting on the "China-U.S.trade war When reporting on the "China-U.S.trade war," the report focuses not only on China’s economic situation,but also on the economic chain reaction at the world economic level and the impact on Japan’s domestic market from a macro perspective,presenting the image of a worried observer.Behind all this is the power struggle between Japan and China and the United States in international relations,the influence of cultural and psychological values,and institutional considerations in terms of media properties.At a time when global integration is advancing and telling a good Chinese story and promoting foreign communication with high quality have become major tasks,a comparative analysis of the textual framework of the two trade war reports of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun provides a new perspective for further understanding of Japanese media communication strategies and research on Japan-U.S.relations,which helps China adjust its foreign propaganda strategies in a timely manner and fight the "war of public opinion" in the trade war.The comparative analysis provides a new perspective to further understand the Japanese media communication strategy and the study of Japan-US relations.