Hope for thaw in frosty relations

The LDP and New Komeito will send heavyweight figures to Beijing with a specific goal: help Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have a summit talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Beijing in November.

Leaders of the two countries have never talked face to face since they took office.

Abe wants to meet with Xi without any preconditions. It means that he is still giving the cold shoulder to the historical and territorial issues that, to China, are the culprits for the deteriorating bilateral ties.

In September 2012 the Japanese government "nationalized" the disputed islands that China claims sovereignty over and the two countries agreed to shelve until sensible solutions can be found. Japan does not admit there is a territorial dispute with China. Japan's move immediately landed its relations with China in a deadlock.

On Dec 20, 2012 Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida talked about the issues in the bilateral relations, part of the preparations for a meeting between Xi and Abe, according to former Chinese Ambassador to France Wu Jianmin.

On Dec 26, 2013 Abe visited the Yasukuni Shrine, which enshrines the Class-A war criminals along with Japan's war dead. Sensible Japanese politicians – a prime minister in particular – don't pay homage to the controversial shrine that China and South Korea take as the remains of Imperial Japan's militarist expansion.

Abe's Yasukuni visit ruined the efforts Chinese and Japanese diplomats made to improve the relations.

For China, the historical issue and territorial dispute are the political obstacles that have done great damage to bilateral relations.

With the APEC around the corner, Japan's big shots, be they in politics or the business community, are trying to lend Abe a helping hand.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda visited Beijing in July and held talks with President Xi with a proposal for a Sino-Japanese summit at the APEC meeting.

At a press conference in Tokyo on Sept 21, Natsuo Yamaguchi, head of New Komeito, said: "I would like to push strongly for the realization of (Abe's) summits with Chinese and South Korean leaders."

The Japan-China Economic Association, which consists of Japanese business leaders, sent a 200-strong group headed by Toyota Motor Corp. Honorary Chairman Fujio Cho and including Japan Business Federation Chairman Sadayuki Sakakibara to Beijing. Though failing to meet with the Chinese president to make an appeal for the Xi-Abe summit, the Japanese business giants talked with Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Yang on Sept 24.