How Did China's Cultural Predominance To Japan?

China’s cultural predominance in the region and its proximity to Japan had a really big impact on Japanese minds through the ages. China has always played a big role in Japan’s development for both historical and cultural reasons. When China failed to defend itself against foreign interference Japan couldn’t help but starting to see China in a new light. Its continued political instability gave Japan the opportunity to challenge China's position in the region which would later result in the Sino-Japanese War. Around that time, Japanese attitudes toward China were diverse and multi-dimensional [Paul. D. Scott - Arao Sei and the Paradox of Cooperation, p. 9.]
Fukuzawa Yukichi was one of the most influential men in Japanese society during the
He believed China and Japan could maintain a peaceful co-existence, but he also saw the opportunity for Japan to expand its influence in Asia using the connection with China for its benefits. Arao’s ideas concerning Japan's role in Asia represent an alternative model of Japanese expansionism. This model was based on a structure of Japanese commercial hegemony in Asia. Arao's tireless advocacy of peaceful, cooperative trade relations with China was his own answer to Japan's acute concerns over its national security and its search for autarky [Paul. D. Scott - Arao Sei and the Paradox of Cooperation, p. 2]. He was sure that it wouldn’t take long for China to get on the right path and start catching up to Japan. He wished to strengthen and rebuild China, though he still thought Japan was the one who should lead Asia toward the future. In Arao’s vision, Japan would become the dominant country in Asia, but it would do that in a peaceful
As soon as capitalistic powers expanded and invaded Asia, he felt he had a mission to support the freedom and human rights of the Asian people. With his brother's inspiration about the rise and fall of China, Toten set his mind on the Chinese Revolution [Miyazaki Toten. More than just friendship. http://www.homerleasite.com/Site/Blog/D6C44C9A-65C7-11DD-8871-003065F3F514.html], something that ended up changing completely the trajectory of his life. Toten soon became one of the handful of Japanese people who really wanted to help China getting back on its feet and to its past glories without expecting anything back for Japan. Toten literally fell in love with China and spent most of his life fighting for the country of his dreams. He organized secret revolutionary meetings in Japan and developed a close friendship with the leader of the Xinhai revolution, Sun Yat-sen.
While Fukuzawa Yukichi and Arao Sei, although with different approaches, wanted Japan to achieve greatness and to take the place that once had been China’s, Toten put China's interests before Japan's. There truly were no such thoughts as "interests in mainland China" or "Japanese expansion" in Miyazaki's mind[Kazou Sato. Sun Yat-sen's 1911 Revolution had Its seeds in Tokyo.The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus.