The history of Japan's road to war in China during the 1930s and 1940s is well known, as are the legacies of that disastrous conflict in the diplomatic disputes, territorial rows, and educational policy battles between Japan and China since the 1980s. Less understood, however, is the nature of Japan-China relations during the intervening decades. How did a popular Japanese perception of China that facilitated imperial aggression during the early 1940s become one that embraced both the restoration of friendly diplomatic ties and the cultivation of mutually beneficial economic and cultural interactions by the early 1970s? Exploring everyday Japanese impressions of the People's Republic of China from the end of the U.S. Occupation in 1952 to the normalization of Japan-China relations in 1972, this book analyzes representations of the PRC in Japanese print media and visual culture in connection with four main topics: the 1954 visit to Japan by PRC Minister of Health Li Dequan, China's atomic weapons testing in 1964–1967, the Red Guard movement of the early Cultural Revolution years, and the culture of continental “rediscovery” in 1971–1972.

Japanese views of the Chinese world under Chairman Mao were infused with elements of thematic and conceptual continuity linking the prewar, wartime, and postwar eras. In sketching out a portrait of these elements, as revealed in a wide variety of popular media sources of that time, author Erik Esselstrom explains how the reconstruction of Japan's relationship with China after the Second World War included far more than just the trials and tribulations of Cold War diplomacy. In so doing, the book reintegrates the history of postwar Japan-China relations within a much longer history of East Asian cultural interaction and engagement.

Firmly grounded in rigorous primary source analysis, but also crafted with a highly accessible style and structure, That Distant Country Next Door offers new insights to scholars of modern East Asian history and provides a compelling and provocative story for readers seeking a more sophisticated understanding of modern Japanese society and the history of modern Japan-China relations.