Hong Kong and Japan: Commerce, Culture and Contention
This article analyses the nature of contemporary Hong Kong–Japan relations in their economic, political and cultural dimensions, setting the relationship within the broader context of Sino-Japanese relations, concerns about identity and nationalism within Hong Kong, and changing Japanese commercial priorities. While the commercial and popular cultural ties between Japan and Hong Kong remain dominant, since the mid-1990s political issues have become more visible in Hong Kong–Japan relations. Changing moods within Hong Kong about the handover and, after 1997, about the nature of the redefined relationship with China have had an important influence on the political economy of Hong Kong–Japan relations.
A Clash of Colonialisms: Sports Culture in Hong Kong Under the Japanese Occupation
After a brief but bloody military campaign‚ the invading Japanese forces occupied Hong Kong on Christmas Day 1941. For the following three years and eight months, the Japanese military administration tried to impose a new social order through the ‘Japanization’ of Hong Kong. The role of sport in this remodelling policy has been largely ignored‚ but it can provide a test-case to examine how superficial that ‘Japanization’ was in practice. This article discusses the sporting culture of Hong Kong on the eve of the Japanese invasion; the immediate impact of the military campaign and the imposition of Japanese rule; the policies of the new Japanese administration in terms of health, education and sporting activities; the extent to which Japanese-style sporting priorities were carried out; and the legacies of Japanese policies and influences after the war ended, including any impact on contemporary Hong Kong-Japan political and sporting encounters.
The Sino-Japanese Relationship and East Asian Security: Patterns and Implications
The Sino-Japanese relationship is among the central factors in East Asian international politics, but it remains a derivative rather than primary strategic pattern. Leaders in Beijing, long preoccupied by the Soviet-American military competition in East Asia and the more immediate Soviet challenge to China's security, have only begun to assess the potential effects of Japanese power on Chinese political and security interests. Japan's predominant concern has been the maintenance of its political and security alignment with the United States, reinforced by decades of Soviet rigidity toward Tokyo.