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Not as much as you might think. Not anymore. Depending on who you talk to, there is almost as many Mandarin classes being offered by neighborhood schools as there are English. Lots of young Chinese couples are visiting Japan for tourism and vice-versa.

In the past, the Beijing government subsidized the anti-Japanese sentiment in China — but only as a way to blow off steam and direct people’s anger at an outside source. They could probably turn it most of it off just as easily.

I’ve been in Japan for 25 years, and if there is one thing that still surprises me is how fast they can react, as a nation, to a catalytic change. Played right, there could be a newly found deeply blossoming friendship between Japan and China. The seeds are already there.

The deeply patriotic nationalists on both sides would squawk like hell, but in Japan they make up a relatively small fraction of the population and nobody pays much attention to them anyhow.

The Japanese would have a long list of demands — some of which would be politically dangerous for Beijing to consider, but they might actually be able to convince their public that the benefits outweigh the concessions. That list would include acknowledgement of Japanese sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands (and the resulting exclusive economic zone), no interference with Japanese continued defense buildups, concrete Chinese action to contain and neutralize North Korea and an end to the continuous demands for apologies related to WWII.

If, in exchange for all that, Japan were to kick the United States completely out of Okinawa, Sasebo, Yokosuka and Misawa — while allowing a face-saving base to continue existing at Yokota, they could effectively push the US out of the entire Southeast Asian area, reinforce world perceptions of peaceful benevolent hegemony and begin expanding their influence up through the Straits of Malacca into the Bay of Bengal and even the Indian Ocean.

If Japan were to come to terms with China, do you think any other the ASEAN nations are going to be able to say no? Even Singapore and Thailand would have to come to terms with the thought of China as the senior partner and regional peacekeeper.

So don’t dismiss the idea out of hand. If both sides decided to make it happen, it could happen faster than you think.