A hydroplane is seen in a 3-day patrol mission on the South China Sea in south China, April 21, 2015. (Photo: Xinhua/Guo Qiuda)
Thawing the frosty relations between China and Japan requires Tokyo to take concrete action, including abandoning its historical revisionism and putting an end to its meddling in the South China Sea.
Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida should bear the above in mind as he kicks off his visit to China on Friday. The three-day trip, the first by a Japanese foreign minister in four-and-a-half years, will see a meeting on Saturday between Kishida and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.
Kishida said on Monday he plans to use his trip to get the gears moving to build a Japan-China relationship appropriate for "the new era." His lofty ambitions will require the Japanese diplomat to focus his trip on building trust.
However, Tokyo's positive overture, a rarity in recent years, stands in sharp contrast with a string of missteps, including meddling in territorial disputes involving China and watering down its own wartime atrocities, all of which raise doubts over Japan's sincerity in mending ties with its neighbor.
At the meeting of the Group of Seven foreign ministers held early this month in Hiroshima, the host country hijacked the agenda to focus on tensions in the South China Sea, despite the fact that none of the G7 member is a relevant party to the territorial issues. Most of all, it shed further light on Japan's intention to capitalize on regional instability.
China's activities in the South China Sea, regardless of the ill-intentioned hype they are subject to, are both justified and legitimate. Self-serving, groundless finger-pointing by an irrelevant party won't help.
Meanwhile, teaming up with the United States in stoking regional tensions by joining in on war games in the South China Sea has hollowed out Japan's credibility as a "proactive contributor to peace."
It only gets worse. Japan's passing of a series of security bills that would allow its Self-Defense Forces to engage in armed conflicts overseas is in defiance of Japanese Supreme Law, or its war-renouncing Article 9.
Adding to the questions over Japan's sincerity in thawing bilateral ties is its unbridled historical revisionism. Just days before Kishida outlined what he called the "new era," Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made an offering to the notorious Yasukuni Shrine, a symbol of past Japanese military expansionism, not to mention his ceaseless attempts to whitewash Japan's wartime atrocities and challenge the post-war international order since he took office in late 2012.
Given these disturbing acts, whether the Japanese foreign minister brings enough sincerity on his China trip remains to be seen. The "new era" should be laid out with concrete actions instead of empty words.
Kishida should seize this opportunity to make a constructive effort to advance relations between Asia's two largest economies. Improved Beijing-Tokyo ties are in the interests of both sides and any positive contribution to that end is always welcome by China.
Considering Japan's sluggish economy and forecasts of negative growth, the opportunity to boost economic ties with its largest trading partner should be of vital concern.
The ball is in Tokyo's court. It is high time Japan endeavored to regain the trust of the international community. Showing sincerity by looking squarely at its inglorious past and ending its irresponsible remarks over issues Tokyo is not a relevant party to could be a good start.
