Sino-Japanese Relations from the Perspective of Chinese Mainstream Media During the Pandemic: Based on Word2vec and DTM Model

Abstract

We conducted sentiment classification for news reports during the COVID-19 pandemic on Sino-Japanese relations from Chinese and Japanese media. Based on the Word2vec and Dynamic Topic Models, we analyzed the macroscopic dimension of theme distribution and the semantic change process of “Sino-Japanese” related words. The results indicate that Chinese media reports are mainly neutral, but Japanese ones are mainly negative. The meaning of the terms related to “Sino-Japanese” has not changed significantly, but there are minor differences in the content of reports on the same subject in different periods. During Suga’s administration, the overall stability of Sino-Japanese relations and the continued advancement of pragmatic cooperation are expected to continue.