Time bomb damages Japan's ties with China

China and Japan will renew their security talks and consultations on their ties and regional affairs this month. The talks have been stalled since the Japanese government illegally "nationalized" part of the Diaoyu Islands in 2012.

Toshihiro Nikai, chairman of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party's General Council, is due to visit China in May, as head of a 3,000-strong Japanese delegation that will include tourism and local government officials. He said the trip was an attempt to improve the frozen bilateral relations at a news conference in Tokyo on Feb 25.

Back in 2007, when the two countries observed the 35th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties, Nikai, as chairman of the Diet Affairs Committee of the LDP, signed an agreement with China's National Tourism Administration Director Shao Qiwei on exchange visits by more than 20,000 people from both countries.

The friendliness between the two countries such frequent visits helped cultivate, however, has drained away due to the territorial dispute and Japanese politicians' denials of history.

Some non-government organizations have been trying to revive the spirit of friendship by working on the thorny issues that have soured relations.

A Japanese civic group, which is dedicated to carrying on and developing the spirit of former Japanese prime minister Tomiichi Murayama's statement on the country's colonial rule and aggression in other Asian countries in the 20th century, will send 10 scholars to China this week. These scholars will visit such cities as Beijing, Nanjing and Shanghai from Monday to Friday to help build trust between the two countries, or at least in the people-to-people relations.

Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the end of the World War II, Murayama's statement in 1995 apologized for the tremendous damage and suffering his country caused the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations, through its colonial rule and aggression.