At around the time major Beijing bookstores were pulling Haruki Murakami's best-seller "1Q84" from shelves in late September as the row with China over the Senkaku Islands was escalating, some 100,000 orders for a Chinese journal specializing in Japanese society and culture poured into the Internet shopping portal Amazon China.
Titled Zhiri, which means knowing Japan, the journal takes up nonpolitical issues in Japan that can serve as a "mirror" for China. Its aim is not only to let readers know about Japan, but also to inspire them to reflect on issues and problems faced by China.
The journal's instantaneous rise to popularity showed that despite public displays of anti-Japan sentiment, the desire to know about Japan has in fact been growing quietly within the society.