China wants to refocus ties with Tokyo from a bitter past to pressing current problems when Premier Wen Jiabao visits Japan next week, as the two Asian powers seek to tame rivalry over energy, territory and influence.

His visit will be the first by a Chinese premier after seven years troubled by then-Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's regular visits to the Yasukuni shrine that critics call a symbol of unatoned war crimes.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's similarly hawkish views on World War Two, including more nuanced remarks about women forced into sexual slavery for Tokyo's invading armies, would once also have drawn fury from Beijing.

But China wants to update its frayed game plan on Japan, putting current worries ahead of feuds over history. Wen's visit will be a guarded outing of the new approach.

"Both countries are now facing up to the real problems of the present," said Huang Dahui, a Japan expert at the People's University of China in Beijing. "History issues can't be avoided, but they shouldn't become the core of the relationship."

Japan remains the economic titan of Asia, with a $4.5 trillion economy -- about double the size of China's, according to World Bank numbers from 2005. China was Japan's second biggest trade partner in 2006, approaching the United States as number one.

Tokyo wants to translate its economic might into diplomatic clout, including on the United Nations Security Council. But China's economy is set to speed past Japan's in coming decades, and it wants to use its strategic reach to protect access to markets and resources.

"China is evolving from a political power into an economic power, Japan is evolving from an economic power to a political power, and so there is a regional clash of imperatives that can't be avoided," Huang said.

MORE PRAGMATIC ABE

Abe comes from the same conservative camp of the Liberal Democratic Party that nurtured Koizumi. But China sees room to work with the more pragmatic Abe, said Liu Jiangyong, a Japan expert at Tsinghua University in Beijing who just published an 800-page assessment of relations urging "sustainable security".

"Once Koizumi said something, he never shifted, no matter if he was right or wrong. Abe is different. It's possible for him to change tack," said Liu.

In signs of a policy turn, China has muted its criticism of Abe's comments on "comfort women", embraced visiting Japanese politicians and broadcast gushing reports about Japan on state television. Abe's avoidance of Yasukuni since becoming prime minister in September and his ice-breaking visit to Beijing in October have helped.

Still, major breakthroughs are not on the cards for Wen.

The two nations have been locked in dispute over defining their economic zone boundary in the East China Sea, which could hold valuable natural gas and oil.

Tokyo fears Beijing's rapid military build-up; Beijing fears Abe's plans to amend Japan's constitution and give his country's defence forces a longer leash.

These disputes are intractable for now, especially with the scars left by the shrine issue, said Shi Yinhong, a regional security expert at the People's University. But Wen will be looking for common ground that can diminish distrust.

"There is to some extent a kind of temporary freeze on the existing disputes while they focus on secondary things to build confidence," Shi said.

A focus of potential confidence-building will be energy, where China wants Japan's waste-cutting technology as well as some progress over the East China Sea dispute, he said.

But small steps can bring the two sides only so much closer. And if Abe visits Yasukuni, as some Japanese observers predict, ties could again freeze up.

"Even if he goes quietly and without publicity, it will hurt relations," said Huang. "But I don't think the damage would be as bad as under Koizumi."