Ahead of Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura's trip to Beijing on Sunday to meet his counterpart, The Japan Times interviewed Sino-Japanese relations experts Tomoyuki Kojima and Zhu Jianrong to hear their views on how the two nations can defuse mounting anti-Japan activities in China, blamed in part on recently approved textbooks that gloss over Japan's wartime atrocities.
Japan must urge China to join a study group to look into Japan's wartime aggression and other historical issues to reduce the risk of bilateral relations being damaged by disagreements over the past, according to Tomoyuki Kojima, professor of international relations at Keio University.
Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura has indicated he would propose this when he meets Sunday in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart, Li Zhaoxing.