Ice btw China, Japan can only be melted by sincere dialogue

Japan's New Komeito party leader Natsuo Yamaguchi came to China to "pave the way for dialogue," igniting hopes that the two countries can take the chance to cool the tensions and repair their bilateral relations.

Yamaguchi's visit shows the Japanese government's willingness to open "the door to normalizing relations" with China, which, however, should be finally materialized by sincere dialogue and concrete actions.

When looking back on Japan's recent foreign policies, it is easy to see the contradiction in Tokyo's positions. On the one hand, the Japanese government stressed the importance of its relationship with China. On the other, it still stubbornly sticks to its wrong stance on the Diaoyu Islands issue.

Some days ago, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed hopes to "return to the starting point of developing a mutually reciprocal relationship" with China.

However, what he did was continuously sending wrong signals on Japan's territorial disputes with its neighbors and ill-intentionedly attempting to involve the United States and other countries in the conflicts.

As the initiator of the island-buying farce that leads to the current stalemate of the Sino-Japanese relationship, it is natural for the Japanese government to firstly take measures to rebuild its mutual trust with China.

In fact, without a proper solution to the territorial disputes, there can be no improvement of Sino-Japanese relations to speak of.

Encouragingly, some sober Japanese politicians have realized the mistakes committed by their government and have begun to play a positive role in promoting bilateral relations between China and Japan.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama apologized for Japan's wartime crimes in China during his recent visit to the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing.

Moreover, Yohei Kono, a retired Japanese liberal politician and three-time foreign minister, criticized former premier Yoshihiko Noda for the island purchase.

The earnest attitudes like these to face the problems existing between the two countries are indispensable to the solution to the conflicts between China and Japan.

As two of the most important powers in Asia, a healthy Sino-Japan relationship is in all sides' favor, and would do good for regional peace and prosperity.

A retrospective of the Sino-Japan relationship shows that when there is peace between the two countries, both benefit and when there is conflict, both suffer.

China has consistently pushed to solve the territorial disputes through dialogue and consultation. Although the ice between China and Japan is thick, it can be melted by sincere dialogue.