Should we criticize 'cherry tourism' because of Abe?

Sherry blossoms in Hirosaki Castle. Photo provided to China Daily

In sharp contrast to the withering ties between China and Japan, Japan's tourism is blossoming because of Chinese tourists. No wonder Chinese tourists to Japan have sparked big controversy back at home, where they have even been described as "traitors" by some netizens.

But should the people's exchanges bear the brunt of people's anger?

After repeated provocative speeches and actions by Japanese politicians' trying to whitewash Japan's atrocities during World War II, the Japanese government dealt a new blow to bilateral ties by green lighting 18 new textbooks on Monday.

Some of these textbooks rub salts on Chinese people's wounds by glossing over the notorious Nanjing Massacre, which killed more than 300,000 Chinese people. What's worse, all the 18 textbooks describe China's Diaoyu Islands as Japan's territory.

The fallacious textbooks will not only intensify the tensions between Japan and China, but also cast a shadow over the series of activities taking place to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.

In the annual survey conducted by China Daily and the Japanese think tank Genron NPO last September, 86.8 percent of the polled Chinese had a "bad" or "relatively bad" impression about Japan, while a record high of 93 percent of polled Japanese thought negatively about China.

This begs the question, why do so many Chinese rush to visit Japan when ties between the two countries are at freezing point?

In 2014, 2.2 million Chinese tourists visited Japan, and in the first quarter of 2015 the number of Chinese tourists to Japan reached a record 690,000. And during the just-concluded Qingming Festival holiday, Japan was the hottest overseas destination for Chinese tourists because of the cherry blossoms.

The lower cost of trips to Japan because of the depreciation of the yen, the mature tourism services, as well as the country's geographic proximity, have all contributed to make Japan a popular destination for Chinese tourists.