Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said he will face up to
history to help improve Sino-Japanese relations.
He made the remarks in an interview with China Central
Television (CCTV) which was broadcast yesterday ahead of Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Japan on Wednesday.
Starting with a Chinese greeting Ni Men Hao (How are
you), Abe said the China-Japan relationship is one of the most
important of bilateral ties for his country; and hoped they could
develop into a strategic relationship for mutual benefit.
He said he is looking forward to Wen's visit in spring, a season
"when the ice is melting and flowers are starting to blossom", and
hopes to visit China this year.?
Abe paid an "ice-breaking" trip to China last October soon after
taking office. He met President Hu Jintao and reached agreements that thawed
relations chilled by former Japanese prime minister Junichiro
Koizumi's repeated visits to the Yasukuni Shrine that honors top
Japanese World War II war criminals.
Abe said he firmly believes that the "ice" in relations will
finally melt when more Chinese people get to know Japan's post-war
road of development.
He said he hopes Wen's trip, including the summit meeting, would
produce substantive results in various fields such as energy,
environmental protection and regional security.
As Wen's visit also coincides with the 35th anniversary of the
normalization of China-Japan relations and the Year of Cultural and
Sports Exchanges, Abe said he would like to use the opportunity to
invite more Chinese people, especially the younger generation, to
visit his country and enhance mutual understanding.
Abe said China's development provides a big opportunity to not
only Japan, but also Asia and the world at large, citing bilateral
trade had hit a record eight years in succession.
The volume of trade between the two countries has increased
nearly 200 times from $1.1 billion in 1972, when Sino-Japanese ties
were normalized, to $207.4 billion in 2006.
"Such an achievement was unimaginable even 10 years ago," Abe
said.
In another development, a survey published yesterday said that
most undergraduates in China and Japan regard the other country as
an important nation and 37 percent of them are positive about
future China-Japan relations.
The survey, jointly conducted by the China's Outlook
Weekly and mainstream Japanese newspaper The Daily
Yomiuri, polled 1,020 Japanese and 987 Chinese college
students in March.
Though a majority of respondents are not satisfied with the
current state of relations, 37 percent believe relations will
"improve" or "greatly improve" in the future. More than 40 percent
think the relations will "remain unchanged".
More than two-thirds of the Japanese undergraduates chose China
as Japan's most important partner for economic growth; whereas
Chinese students ranked Japan in second place, following the United
States.
A majority of both Chinese and Japanese students believe China
will become the most influential country in the world. More than
half of the Japanese students deemed China would overtake Japan in
the next 10 years in terms of GDP.
(Xinhua News Agency April 9, 2007)
