Japan and China shared the view that the two nations did not pose a military threat to each other, two years after the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement, according to a Japanese diplomatic document.
By stabilizing the regional security situation, Tokyo and Beijing may have been trying to improve their relations frayed by the military crackdown, which prompted Western countries and Japan to impose economic sanctions on China, pundits said.
During a meeting in Beijing in 1991, then-Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu told then-Chinese Premier Li Peng that Japan would not be militarized, given that the nation has feelings of deep remorse for its past aggression, according to the document, which was declassified Wednesday.