Yoshihiko Noda could usher in a new era of cooperation and mutually beneficial relationship between China and Japan

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who assumed office in September, begins his first official visit to China on Christmas. His visit will be followed keenly by Chinese and Japanese people and media, and not without reason they expect it to bring some Christmas and New Year gifts.

According to the Japanese media, Noda's meetings with Chinese leaders are likely to cover issues such as restarting talks on common exploitation of gas and oil in the East China Sea, establishment of a maritime crisis management mechanism and easing of China's restrictions on import of Japanese food products. Also, Japan would like to see a rebound in the number of Chinese tourists to the pre-earthquake level and get an assurance from China on the supply of rare earth in 2012.

The Chinese media hope the two neighbors would strengthen cooperation and support each other at a time when both are undergoing economic restructuring amid sluggish global economic recovery and other uncertainties.

Historical issues and the dispute over the Diaoyu Islands are likely to be on the agenda, too. But another important topic will be the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue and its stability after the unexpected death of Kim Jong-il, leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Of course, so many issues cannot be resolved during Noda's two-day visit. But more important and urgent than resolving immediate issues is the building of mutual trust and confidence and adoption of an open and positive attitude toward each other.

This is especially important when we look at the latest survey conducted by China Daily and Genron NPO, a Japanese nonprofit think tank. The poll shows that the amiability factor between Chinese and Japanese people has been declining since 2005, the year when the poll was first conducted, and is the lowest in 2011. This year, only 28.6 percent of Chinese respondents said they had a good opinion of Japan, down 10 percentage points from 2010. The percentage of Japanese people who have a positive attitude toward China, too, declined 6.5 percentage points to 20.8.

China has become the world's second largest economy and Japan is the third largest, and they are important trading partners for each other. Practices of the past decade show that Japan has become increasingly dependent on a fast-growing China to emerge out of its lingering economic slowdown.

Facts also show that China cannot realize its aspirations of peaceful development and building of an all-round, well-off society without a stable international environment, especially in East and Southeast Asia and the wider Asia-Pacific region, in all of which Japan plays a very important role.

That so few Chinese and Japanese people have a good opinion about each other despite being highly interdependent is a quirk of international relations. Without changing such a stereotype mentality among people of the two countries, it is impossible to establish strategically reciprocal, mutually beneficial Sino-Japanese ties.

The economic and political situations in Asia, indeed across the world, continue to undergo profound changes, which are reflected in Sino-Japanese relations, too. During President Hu Jintao's visit to Japan in May 2008, a strategic and mutually reciprocal bilateral relationship was established through an official document. It may not have ended the ups and downs in bilateral ties, but it certainly created a new starting point.

The collision between a Chinese fishing trawler and Japan Coast Guard ships near the Diaoyu Islands in September 2010 and the cropping up of some new issues relating to the South China Sea after the United States launched its Asia-Pacific strategy afresh, combined with other events, have pushed Sino-Japanese ties into a new period of mutual adjustments and accommodations.

Despite occasional clashes and frictions, Chinese and Japanese leaders agree that the two countries need each other for economic, strategic and peaceful reasons.

The finalization of Noda's visit, which earlier was postponed for about two weeks, indicates that both countries feel a sense of urgency to take bilateral ties to new heights. It shows that both sides were eager to hold highest-level talks before 2011 ended in order to regularize the exchange of annual visits between their leaders, an agreement that was reached in 2008.

Besides, Beijing and Tokyo both hope to create a good environment as the 40th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries approaches next year.

Noda's visit will send a positive signal to the rest of the world that the two neighbors are eager to enhance bilateral ties and give the Chinese and Japanese people the hope that next year will be one of improved relations between the neighbors.

The author is an associate research fellow with the Institute of Japanese Studies, affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

(China Daily 12/24/2011 page5)