Abstract: China's image in Japan undergoes profound changes due to the changes of international order, the outbreak of COVID19 pandemic and the intensification of strategic competition between China and the United States. Japanese think tanks and mainstream media are more aware of China in the context of changes in the international order, and more in a multilateral framework rather than in a bilateral one. Under the comprehensive force of diverse factors, Japan has formed multiple layers of China's image, such as “rising power”, “rewriter of international order”, a tough and tenacious country under the epidemic situation, and “the imaginary enemy” of the United States with uncertainty. Although it is not necessarily objective, Japan's construction of the image of China is based on the construction of its own identity, which is a maintainer of the current international order and coordinator with “unequal distance” between China and the United States. We should fully mobilize the constructive factors in its cognition of China, eliminate the unfavorable factors, and prevent the image from being stereotyped.

Key words: Japan, China's image, international order, COVID-19 pandemic, Sino-US strategic competition