"Although Japan is often ranked among the most popular countries in the world, its negative image in China and South Korea bedevils diplomacy with these two close neighbors. Paul A. Kowert explores how the politics of emotion shapes regional perceptions of Japan. Examining the role of emotion in international relations addresses gaps that cannot be explained solely by historical memory, geopolitical advantage, or domestic politics. Drawing evidence from case histories, elite statements, and text analysis of newspapers, Kowert argues that attitudes toward Japan in Beijing and Seoul are more changeable than is commonly understood and that they vary in ways that can be predicted. Rather than proposing another monocausal account of what drives attitudes about Japan in China and South Korea, he develops a new model of how political emotion is channelled down certain pathways, influencing Japan's image abroad as well. as its own anxieties"--