HONOLULU -- Two weeks in China have left me concerned about future relations between Japan and China. A smooth and cooperative Japan-China relationship is essential to regional peace, stability and prosperity. Yet increasing interaction at just about every level of the relationship has generated many irritants. I'm not sure that increased contact between the two countries will create the understanding needed to improve that relationship, but increasing integration will help. As in a boxing match, it's harder to punch while in the opponent's clinch.

At the level of high politics, the relationship is solid. The two leaderships (from prime ministers and presidents on down) have regular meetings on a variety of subjects and at many different regional and international forums.

At the grass-roots level, numbers are encouraging. In 2003, 2.25 million of China's 7.26 million Asian visitors came from Japan, making Japan the No. 1 source of tourists. Some 452,000 Chinese visited Japan in 2002. More than 70,000 Chinese students were in Japan as of May 2003, a 21 percent increase over the year before, and they accounted for 64.7 percent of the foreign students in Japan.