For much of Chinese and Japanese history, the relations between these two countries have been amicable. China's influence over Japanese culture, language, and customs cannot be overstated; however, in the nineteenth century, things changed. The Chinese were humiliated time and again by Britain and the other European powers, and as the Japanese began to modernize in the Meiji Restoration, they came to look at China as backwards and unable to defend itself.

The relations between Japan and China suffered in the years after the Second World War and continue to suffer to this day in large part as a result of atrocities committed by the Japanese during their invasion of China and perceived historical insensitivity on the part of the Japanese. The Rape of Nanking, a weeks-long massacre involving horrible violence and the rape of women that took place in 1937, is the most infamous and offensive of these atrocities.

The Meiji Restoration is the name given to the modernization and westernization of Japanese society in the second half of the nineteenth century. As a result of Japan's increasing economic and military power combined with China's subjugation by the British and French, the Japanese came to view the Chinese as a backwards nation that was unable to defend itself.

During the Chinese Civil War, the Nationalist Party, which wanted to install a democratic government in China, was forced off of the Chinese mainland and eventually installed a Chinese state on the island of Taiwan (sometimes called Chinese Taipei). This led to a situation where the majority of Western countries, and Japan, recognized the government of Taiwan as the only legitimate Chinese government until the 1970s. The communist government of mainland China was considered illegitimate by the United States and Japan during the more fractious years of the early Cold War.

Trade between China and Japan, from the end of the Second World War until the early 1970s, was only conducted in an unofficial, black-market form; however, in 1972 (concurrent with Nixon's visit to China), trade relations between Japan and China were normalized and each country is now one of the largest trading partners of the other.

Since the end of the Second World War, the biggest obstacle to friendly relations between the People's Republic of China and Japan has been the memory of Japanese wartime atrocities. In particular, the horrific Rape of Nanking stands out as the most divisive of incidents. This situation is exacerbated by frequent Japanese refusals to recognize and apologize for the atrocities committed during the Second World War. In the twenty-first century, these issues have shown some signs of abating as Japan has issued some formal apologies and offered concessions to the Chinese government. Still, the people of each country remain distrustful of the people of the other country.