A latest poll unveiled on Tuesday that tapping public diplomacy to repair bilateral relations continued to attract public support from both China and Japan.  The contribution of people-to-people interactions to improving ties were endorsed by 64.4 percent of the Japanese public and 63.4 percent of its Chinese counterpart, , according to the 10th Public Opinion on China-Japan Relations survey, which has been co-sponsored annually by China Daily and Japanese nonprofit think tank Genron NPO.

If it wants to strengthen its presence in the international community and adequately inform a wider audience abroad about itself, Japan should strategically strengthen its public relations overseas and promote cultural exchanges with other nations. In its budgetary request for fiscal 2015, the Foreign Ministry has requested about 50 billion yen (about $475 million) for a new key budgetary item called "strategic proliferation of information abroad."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Japan — the land of the rising sun — has written a new chapter in the cultural ties between India and Japan — ties that date back centuries.  The Prime Minister – who represents the holy city of Kashi in the Indian Parliament – had launched his five-day-long visit from Kyoto, the heritage city of Japan. Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe was in Kyoto to welcome the Indian Prime Minister upon his arrival.

Hard-headed bean counters are busy auditing the economic gains of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Japan but the PM seems to have shrewdly used "soft power" symbolism to boost the profile of a visit billed as a major international engagement. 

Led by a Japanese pro wrestler-turned-politician, about 20 mixed martial artists from around the world — including a former NFL lineman — arrived in North Korea on Thursday to put on a series of exhibition matches this weekend.The exhibition will be the first major sports event with marquee foreigners in Pyongyang since former Chicago Bulls star Dennis Rodman and a team of former NBA players put on a basketball game in January that was widely criticized in the United States.

There are a lot of things that surprise newcomers to anime. Why are the characters’ eyes so big? How come everyone has funky hair colors? What’s up with all the panty shots? A lot of those have simple answers. The giant eyes are an influence from legendary manga artist Osamu Tezuka, who was in turn inspired by classic Disney designs. Anime artwork uses a relatively small number of lines in drawing faces, and a large palette of hair colors is a quick and easy way to differentiate otherwise similar-looking characters.

A Japanese wrestler-turned-politician hopes his vision of "sports diplomacy" can repair his country's fraught relationship with North Korea, as he prepares to host an extraordinary sporting event in Pyongyang. And Kanji "Antonio" Inoki has form: he helped secure the release of Japanese hostages in Iraq in 1990 after impressing tyrant Saddam Hussein, and more recently used his old bouts with Pakistani wrestlers to foster goodwill between the South Asian country and his own.