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The Yomiuri Shimbun Japanese Ambassador to China Kenji Kanasugi eats dumplings during a video shoot in Beijing in late January.
By Keiichiro Azuma and Akiko Yoshinaga / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondents
1:00 JST, March 23, 2025
BEIJING — Japanese Ambassador to China Kenji Kanasugi, 65, has been attracting attention in China with social media posts of himself taking part in Chinese cultural experiences.
His food reports on peculiar Chinese specialties have become particularly popular, and as of March 13, he has gained more than 55,000 followers on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.
Kanasugi is leading the embassy’s efforts to improve the sentiment that Chinese people have toward Japan.
In late January, Kanasugi was filmed at the ambassador’s residence eating several kinds of Chinese dumplings made from sticky rice.
“Mm! It’s really sweet. It has sesame. I like the sweet ones,” he said and smiled at the camera.
In China, it is customary to eat these dumplings during the Lantern Festival, which marks the end of the Chinese New Year. The dumplings can be either sweet or salty, and their ingredients include sesame and red beans, with the salty ones often made with meat and vegetables.
When Kanasugi posted the video on Feb. 12, he immediately received comments like “The sweet ones are clearly the best, aren’t they?”
The Yomiuri Shimbun Staff members at the Japanese Embassy in China discuss ideas for social media posts in Beijing in December.
Kanasugi opened a personal account on Weibo after assuming his post as ambassador to China in December 2023 and began posting in April last year. It is the first time that a Japanese ambassador to China has communicated with the public on their personal social media account.
Embassy staff help the ambassador make the posts, assisting with planning, filming and editing the videos. The embassy’s Japanese and Chinese staff hold weekly meetings and have serious discussions about ideas for the posts.
Themes vary from tai chi experiences to art museum visits, but the most popular posts of all are on food. When they posted a video of Kanasugi sipping a traditional Chinese drink with a distinctively sour taste and saying in a deadpan manner, “It’s average,” some viewers rated it highly, with one of them saying, “Even I can’t stand it. You’re brave.”
Behind Kanasugi’s emphasis on communication via social media is a recent souring of sentiment toward Japan in China.
Criticism of Japan, based mostly on misinformation, has made its way onto social media and is now considered a serious problem, especially after incidents in which Japanese residents in the country became victims last year. Kanasugi aims to reach out to China’s younger generations, who frequently use social media, by putting his face out there.
“Although people may criticize what I’m doing, I hope the people of China will see that I’m enjoying my life in Beijing, and feel a little closer to the people of Japan,” he said.
