Framing analysis of Japan and China's response to Fukushima water discharge: Technical rationality vs local experience

This study examines how China and Japan competed to frame the Fukushima water discharge while constructing domestic and international legitimacy. Using a functional framing model and frame-credibility dimensions, we compare strategies: Japan promoted a “Scientific Safety” frame to build technical legitimacy, bolstered by international authority endorsements; China advanced an “Environmental Justice” frame stressing historical accountability, ecological risk, and regional cultural resonance. The confrontation exposed tensions between technical rationality and lived local experience. Internationally, framing moved from a bilateral contest to a multi-level legitimacy struggle and edged toward a tentative, monitoring-based partial accommodation through emerging oversight mechanisms, while deeper conflicts over risk, justice and responsibility remained unresolved. The results enrich theory on framing, legitimacy, and risk governance, and offer practical guidance for bridging technical and cultural claims in global environmental disputes.