Recently, anti-China fictional videos generated by artificial intelligence (AI) have been mass-produced on Japanese online platforms, forming a commercial industrial chain. According to Japanese media outlet Asahi Shimbun, some Japanese creators are using AI to create anti-China content as a means of making profit.
Incendiary videos maliciously slandering Chinese people, such as “Chinese people destroying cherry blossoms” and “Chinese student expelled from school for snatching elderly person’s cane,” are being spread on Japanese video platforms.
According to the report, Japanese video creators are taking orders through freelance platforms and producing fictional scripts depicting so-called “destructive behavior” by Chinese people that end in self-harm, with detailed operating guidelines provided.
By feeding simple prompts into an AI tool, users can generate highly provocative and defamatory videos within minutes. Many clips lack clear labels to distinguish between real events and fictional plots, and some reach hundreds of thousands of views. Embedded ads, on the other hand, allow creators to earn money based on views.
targeted hatred
Job announcements for such jobs explicitly require applicants to be both pro-Japanese and anti-China.
An elderly Japanese man in his 60s is a former government employee who now makes a living by producing anti-China videos. He told the Asahi Shimbun that the price of anti-China videos is high, around 1,000 yen (about $6.30), adding that such videos have a high completion rate and bring in “a stable monthly income of up to 600,000 yen.”
The man, who admitted he has never visited China or interacted with Chinese people, said he simply “hates Chinese people” and that this is what drives his content creation.
A young office worker in his 20s is doing this work as a side job. He said the company initially focused on videos praising Japan, but since last fall orders for content critical of China have skyrocketed.
This change coincided with a period of tension in Sino-Japanese relations following comments made by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi regarding China’s Taiwan region. The freelance platform has since hidden related job postings from public view, according to reports.
Shinichi Yamaguchi, a professor at the International University of Japan, said the trend stems from a structural flaw in the “attention economy,” meaning content that arouses negative emotions attracts far more views and generates more advertising revenue.
Emotions such as anger and resentment tend to attract public attention, and hatred targeting specific countries or groups has proven particularly appealing to online audiences, he said.
Disturbing historical parallels
In an interview with the Global Times, Liu Chao, director of the Institute of American and East Asian Studies at Liaoning University, emphasized that the industrial chain of AI-generated anti-China videos is not an isolated online disruption, but a product of the interaction of Japan’s political environment and social sentiment.
Liu said Gao Shi’s false statements regarding China’s Taiwan region not only soured Sino-Japanese relations but also set a bad example of so-called “political correctness,” adding that this has disturbing historical similarities to the manipulation of public opinion in Japanese society before World War II.
He warned that while AI is lowering the threshold for hatred, it is increasing its harm. He said mass-produced fake videos can be used to intentionally manipulate public perceptions, with technology often disguised as news or real stories, as technology fuels systemic bias.
If left unchecked, this harmful trend will undermine the basis of Japanese society’s understanding of China, hinder bilateral relations, and seriously damage Japan’s international reputation in the long run, Liu said.
