Relations between Japan and China remain in a deep freeze and there is no prospect for improvement any time soon. Symbolic of this is the seizure of a Japanese ship by Chinese authorities over the weekend in connection with a commercial dispute dating back to 1936. It's safe to say that this action — the first of its kind in the postwar period — is a product of the dire state of Japan-China ties.
Bilateral ties have been deteriorating since the bilateral territorial row over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea intensified following the purchase of three islets by the Japanese government in September 2012. The Senkakus dispute has rekindled issues related to perception of modern history involving Japan and China, especially Japan's wartime aggression.
Since then, actions and words by the two countries' leaders caused chilly ties to grow even more frigid. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's December visit to Yasukuni Shrine, which enshrines not only the nation's 2.34 million war dead but also Class-A war criminals, invited harsh criticism from China. During his March visit to Germany, Chinese President Xi Jinping stated that Japanese troops had massacred more than 300,000 people in Nanjing in 1937, prompting Tokyo to accuse him of making "extremely unproductive" remarks in a third country. Japanese and Chinese leaders must make concerted efforts to stop these actions, which are taking a destructive toll on bilateral ties, and focus on repairing the damage.