To overcome this obstacle it is necessary to increase direct contacts between the two peoples by leaps and bounds so as to help them know each other's country better. The Chinese side in particular should bring back the spirit of the years when up to 40,000 and even 50,000 Japanese high school students were invited to visit China on "learning tours".

Such efforts naturally lead to the issue of the media's influence in creating the image of the other country and people in its own readers' and audiences' minds. And the media of both countries should increase contact and improve mutual understanding of each other.

Last but not the least is a note regarding the tendency among some media outlets in both countries to play up the shortcomings and problems emerging from the other country's development. There is no better way of correcting it than "doing our own jobs well".

The author is a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

(China Daily May 16, 2008)