Charismatic rock group Glay is embarking on a mission that even the gray generation of Japanese leaders think very difficult, if not impossible: to fine-tune the country's often rocky ties with China and keep them humming along.

The million-record selling group will tour China next summer as part of events commemorating the 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two neighbors, according to sources closely involved in organizing the events.

Glay will hold concerts in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong between July and August, the sources said.

The organizers of the tour apparently hope that Sino-Japanese relations will grow "Glorious" and that Japanese and Chinese will come to think each other as "Beloved" neighbors, as the titles of two popular Glay songs suggest.

"More and more Japanese pop culture -- rock music, TV dramas and animated cartoons -- is being accepted by Chinese people, as they are by the peoples of other Asian neighbors," one of the sources said. "We expect Glay will receive an enthusiastic reception in China, just as the Beatles did in Japan in the 1960s during their first visit.

"Despite three decades of diplomatic ties, mutual understanding among the peoples of the two countries is still insufficient. For many Chinese people, Hideki Tojo is still a symbol of the Japanese people."

Tojo was a wartime general and prime minister who was later convicted as a Class-A war criminal.

"We want them to look at Japan as it is, instead of still regarding it as militaristic, as it was in the past," the source continued. "We hope Tojo will be replaced by Glay or any other stars of today's Japan as a symbol of the Japanese people."

Japan established diplomatic ties with communist-ruled mainland China in 1972 after severing ties with the then Nationalist-ruled Taiwan. The four Glay members -- Teru, Takuro, Hisashi and Jiro -- were born in 1971 and 1972.

The sources also said that Shiki Theatre Co. plans to perform "Madame Butterfly" in Beijing from the end of September through October as part of commemoration events.

The musical's prima donna will be a Chinese American, and Seiji Ozawa, an internationally known Japanese conductor, will conduct the orchestra, the sources said. Chinese President Jiang Zemin, who is known as a staunch lover of classical music, will be invited to the performance, the sources said.

Other plans call for an animation festival, an exhibition of Japanese comics, a Japanese movie festival, broadcasts of Japanese TV dramas and quiz programs, a comedy performance by Yoshimoto Kogyo -- all in China -- and an exhibition in Japan of precious cultural assets from the old Silk Road, including several sets of mummies.

Japan and China agreed to hold anniversary events in both countries when then Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori met with Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji in Tokyo in October 2000.

But it wasn't until last month that Japan established a blue-ribbon committee of private-sector leaders to prepare for and implement the anniversary events. The committee is chaired by Sony Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Nobuyuki Idei. Keita Asari, chairman of Shiki Theatre, is also one of 11 vice committee chairmen.

By focusing on youth exchanges, the committee hopes to dramatically deepen the Chinese people's understanding of Japan and its people.

The committee might have gotten off to an earlier start if Sino-Japanese relations hadn't taken a turn for the worse over lingering issues regarding the Imperial Japanese Army's atrocities in mainland China before and during World War II.

In April, Japanese education authorities approved a nationalist-authored history textbook for junior high schools that many critics, including many in China, say whitewashes those atrocities.

Then in mid-August, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi heightened anger in China and other Asian nations by paying respects at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. Class-A war criminals, including Tojo, are enshrined there along with the country's war dead.

In mid-October Koizumi and Jiang met in Shanghai during the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit and agreed to work together to repair ties ahead of the 30th anniversary.