釣魚島爭端考驗在華日本品牌

China's tough stance against Japan in an ongoing territorial dispute may have no bigger backer than Yao Xin, a 23-year-old legal assistant who says she refuses to buy Japanese products. 'This is a very big government issue and I will stand by the government,' she said.

對於中國在中日領土爭端問題上對日本採取的強硬立場，現年23歲的法律助理姚欣（音）可以算是最大的支持者。姚欣說她拒絕購買日本產品。她說：這是政府的一件很大的事，我將站在政府一邊。

Ms. Yao made her vow while standing in a Uniqlo store, a retailer owned by Japan's Fast Retailing Co., in Beijing's Japanese-themed Ginza shopping mall. Informed that the blue-collared shirt she was fingering was being sold by a Japanese company, she said, 'Oh, I didn't know.' Fast Retailing on Wednesday renewed its pledge to expand in China.

在北京銀座購物中心內的優衣庫(Uniqlo)門店，姚欣說出了這樣的誓言。銀座購物中心以日本產品爲主題，而零售商優衣庫爲日本迅銷公司(Fast Retailing Co.)所有。當得知自己手裏擺弄的一件藍色領子的襯衫是由日本公司銷售的，她說，啊，我原來並不知道。迅銷公司週三重申了將在華擴大業務的承諾。

Ms. Yao illustrates the complexities behind a nearly four-decade commercial relationship that time and again has bounced back despite occasional diplomatic flare-ups between Tokyo and Beijing. Japanese cars, electronics and clothing have won a high-quality reputation in China, contributing to Japan's $161.47 billion in exports to China last year.

從姚欣身上體現出中日近40年的商貿關係背後的複雜性，儘管中日偶爾會爆發外交衝突，兩國間的商貿關係卻總可以恢復。日本生產的汽車、電子產品和服裝在中國贏得了高質量的聲譽，去年日本對華出口總額達1,614.7億美元。

At the moment, Japanese brands and business in China are suffering as the two sides argue over competing claims to group of rocky islands in the East China Sea. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 2% on Wednesday, its largest daily percentage decline since May. The fall came after Toyota Motor Corp. -2.67% and Nissan Motor Co. -2.64% said they would begin holiday closures of Chinese plants earlier than planned due to softening demand. On Tuesday, the foreign ministers of the two nations met at the United Nations but failed to make headway in talks.

眼下，隨着中日圍繞東中國海(East China Sea，中國稱東海)一組多岩石的島嶼發生領土爭端，在華日本品牌和企業開始受到衝擊。日經指數週三下跌了2%，是5月以來最大單日百分比跌幅。此前，豐田汽車(Toyota Motor Corp.)和日產汽車(Nissan Motor Co.)說，由於需求不斷走軟，在華工廠將比原計劃提前停工過“十一”假期。週二，中國外交部長和日本外務大臣在聯合國舉行會面，但會談沒有取得進展。

Campaigns against Japanese brands have continued online nearly two weeks after the cessation of protests in a number of cities, in which some Japanese stores and car dealerships were vandalized. 'Recommended actions: Make no missteps, absolutely do not buy Japanese products, not even those that were designed in Japan,' wrote one Japan critic, Wang Wei , who has 41,000 followers on China's Sina Weibo Twitter-like microblogging service.

最近中國多座城市舉行反日抗議活動，一些日本商店和汽車經銷店遭到破壞。在抗議活動結束近兩週後，抵制日貨的運動仍在網絡上繼續。一位批評日本的人士王偉（音）在新浪微博上寫道，建議做法：別搞錯，堅決不買日貨，甚至是日本設計的產品。王偉在新浪微博上有4.1萬粉絲。

Auto-industry experts blamed the tensions for a drop in China sales last month for Toyota and Mazda Motor Corp., -2.13% though Honda Motor Co. -4.88% saw a 15% rise from a year earlier.

汽車業專家將上個月豐田和馬自達(Mazda Motor Corp.)在華銷量下滑歸咎於中日之間的緊張關係。不過，本田汽車(Honda Motor Co.)銷量同比卻上升了15%。

Branding experts say the road back for Japanese brands has been complicated by the rise of social-media services in China, which have given anti-Japanese activists greater ability to rally Chinese consumers. 'Complaints now spread quicker and harder,' said Nicole Fall, head of trends at Asia-focused consumer research firm Five by Fifty.

品牌營銷專家說，日本品牌重回中國的道路因中國社交媒體服務的興起而變得更加困難。中國社交媒體網站使反日活動人士團結中國消費者的能力增強。專注於亞洲的消費者研究公司Five by Fifty的趨勢研究負責人福爾(Nicole Fall)說，不滿情緒現在擴散得更快、更猛。

Panasonic Corp. -3.36% said that one TV station in Shanghai earlier this month stopped running commercials for Japanese wares and also suspended programs sponsored by Japanese companies. It's very difficult to predict whether and how much the political tensions might affect Japanese businesses in China this time, said Toshihiko Shibuya, a Panasonic spokesman based in Beijing.

松下電器產業公司(Panasonic Corp.)說，上海一家電視臺本月早些時候停播了日本商品廣告，還暫停了日本公司贊助的節目的播出。松下駐北京發言人Toshihiko Shibuya說，很難預測這次中日之間的政治緊張關係是否可能對在華日本企業造成影響，以及造成多大影響。

Past flare-ups include anti-Japan demonstrations in China in 2005 following visits by Japanese leaders to a controversial Tokyo war shrine that Chinese officials say honors World War II war criminals. In 2010, the detention of a Chinese fishing-boat captain involved in a collision with Japanese patrol boats in waters near the islands led to reports that China had cut off exports of key manufacturing minerals known as rare earths. But business over that period rose unabated, as Japanese exports to China more than doubled between 2005 and 2011.

在過去，日本領導人蔘拜靖國神社曾令中國不滿，在中國引發了包括2005年在內的反日示威活動。中國官員稱，靖國神社供奉的是第二次世界大戰中的戰犯。2010年，在日中爭議島嶼附近水域，日本巡邏船與中國船隻相撞，並導致中國船長被捕。此後有報道稱，中國切斷了對日本重要製造業礦物原料稀土的出口。但在這段時期，商業活動仍舊保持增長，日本對華出口從2005年到2011年增長了超過一倍。

This year's furor has occasionally reached violent levels. Police in China have turned to social media for help in tracking down a man who last week allegedly hit in the head a man driving a Toyota in the western Chinese city of Xi'an, leaving him hospitalized.

今年的衝突則不時升級爲暴力活動。中國警方已經在社交媒體上通緝一名男子，據稱該男子上週在中國西部城市西安重擊一名豐田車主頭部並導致後者住院。

Still, Japanese brands have a considerable cushion in China. Prior to the recent dispute, Japanese car-brand dealers ranked the highest in perception of best service, according to a survey of nearly 15,000 Chinese vehicle owners from market research company J.D. Power.

儘管如此，日本品牌在中國仍有相當大的緩衝空間。根據市場研究公司J.D. Power & Associates對大約1.5萬名中國車主的調查顯示，在最近的爭議爆發之前，日系車經銷商的服務口碑最好。

There's also confusion in China, where Japanese restaurants and stores are staffed-and sometimes owned-by Chinese. Online critics of the anti-Japanese push have pointed at China-owned businesses like sushi joints that have to put pro-China signs in their windows. 'Many recognize that this is perceived as a loss of dignity,' said Tom Doctoroff, North Asia area director and Greater China CEO of ad agency JWT. 'It will die down, and they [Chinese consumers] will reassert their pragmatism.'

中國在這個問題上也存在困惑，因爲在華的日本餐館和商店裏的員工都是中國人，有時連老闆也是中國人。網上反日行動的批評人士指出，中國人擁有的壽司店等店鋪不得不在窗戶上張貼愛國的標誌。廣告公司智威湯遜(JWT)北亞總監兼大中華區首席執行長唐銳濤(Tom Doctoroff)說，許多人已經意識這種做法是斯文掃地，反日情緒會慢慢平息，中國消費者會重拾他們的實用主義。

On Wednesday, Fast Retailing Chief Executive Tadashi Yanai said that his company has no plans to slow its China expansion down. 'If possible we would like to open 100 stores in China annually and we have prospect of opening 80 stores this year,' he said.

週三，迅銷公司首席執行長柳井正(Tadashi Yanai)說，他的公司沒有打算放慢在中國的擴張步伐。他說：如果可能，我們將每年在中國新開100家店，今年我們可能有80家新店在中國開張。

Ban Lu, 30, said Uniqlo sells some of the best clothing she can find in Beijing and her government's standoff with Japan has no impact on her shopping habits. Ms. Ban, a native of China's northeastern Hebei province, said as she shopped at the Uniqlo store in Beijing's Ginza mall that the dispute was a government issue and should be separated from individuals' shopping decisions. 'It's up to me what I want to buy, and quality is what I want to buy.'

今年30歲的班露（音）說，她認爲優衣庫是北京最好的服裝品牌之一，中國政府與日本的緊張關係不會影響她的購物喜好。班露來自中國河北省，她在北京銀座購物中心的優衣庫門店購物時說，領土爭議是政府的問題，應該與個人的購物決定區別開來。她說：我想買什麼由我決定，我想要買質量好的東西。

The issue has also sparked humor attempts on China's Internet. One popular joke-tweaking the well-known taste of China's officials for luxurious foreign brands and sometime confusion over what is a Japanese brand as opposed to a different import-has one government functionary protectively asking his assistant whether anything he owns is Japanese. No, the assistant replies: His watch is Swiss, his clothing Italian, his car German and his mistresses Chinese. 'In that case, let's unite the people and boycott Japanese goods!' he says.

領土爭議問題還在互聯網上引發了一些調侃。一則廣爲傳播的笑話反映了中國官員對外國奢侈品牌的喜好，以及對日本品牌和其他外國品牌區別的一知半解。笑話中說：一名中國官員讓祕書查身邊有什麼日貨，祕書彙報：一件都沒有，您的表是瑞士的，衣服是意大利的，車是德國的，情人是中國的。中國官員說：那就全民一心，抵制日貨吧！