that's because the expectations are always much higher for China.Who knew all it took for this forum's opinion to go from China needs to work on its soft power to China is a secret cultural superpower, was for me to well, express an opinion that even has its own thread and that most ardent Chinese patriots can admit to.
the consensus is that soft power is the ability to get people to do things you want them to do that they wouldn't have otherwise done, without having to force them to do so with military or economic means... which is the original definition as stated by the man who invented the entire concept, Joseph Nye.
Now the question is, there are 2 measures of cultural soft power: 1. making money through cultural exports and 2. making people do things without paying them or holding them at gunpoint that they wouldn't have otherwise done.
Polls indicate that the 1st or 2nd most hated country in China is Japan depending on year. This has been consistent for 20+ years. Toyotas and their dealerships get burnt in anti Japanese riots. Japanese 'soft power' has been absolutely ineffective at making Chinese behave according to Japanese interests.
Market data also indicates that even globally, Japanese games don't make a fraction the money that just a single Genshin Impact does, and outside games, Japanese software is nonexistent. Japanese doesn't have websites or apps with even a fraction of the reach of TikTok alone.
So if Japanese cultural exports are 1. ineffective at making others behave according to Japanese interests and 2. ineffective at making money then wtf are they good for?
In contrast, you know who has the best soft power, as originally defined? Ukraine.
Ukraine has no movie, music, or TV industry that people outside CIS care about. Zelensky was an actor yet his movie was tiny by global standards.
Yet Ukraine is able to force much richer and bigger countries to behave according to Ukrainian interests, without either paying them or having the military ability to coerce them.
I call that soft power.