Japan PM heads to China to forge warmer ties

By Teruaki Ueno

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda aims to improve ties strained by wartime memories during a trip to China beginning on Thursday, but there are few signs disputes over energy, territory and military buildups will be settled anytime soon.

Instead, the Asian rivals are expected to focus on economic and environmental cooperation, including transfers of Japan's waste-cutting, energy-saving and low-pollution technology, during Fukuda's four-day trip.

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda smiles as he boards his special flight to make his first visit to China since taking office at Haneda Airport in Tokyo December 27, 2007. (REUTERS/Issei Kato)

"I want to do everything in my power to build a good relationship," Fukuda told reporters just before leaving his official residence.

Relations between the two countries have already warmed somewhat in the past year after a long chill under former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who repeatedly visited Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine, seen by critics as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.

Now Fukuda, whose father clinched a milestone peace and friendship treaty with Beijing as prime minister in 1978, wants to find ways to further develop "mutually beneficial strategic relations", the new code phrase for improving ties.

"The trip will pave the way for the two powers to build robust friendly ties, reversing the confrontational tone created and nurtured since the time of the Koizumi government," said Terumasa Nakanishi, a professor of international politics at Kyoto University.

Fukuda, 71, has ruled out a pilgrimage to Yasukuni while in office.

"So that removes a major barrier for the Chinese leadership when they engage the Japanese leaders in front of the Chinese domestic, populist anti-Japanese sentiment that is always boiling at the grassroots level," said Wenran Jiang, a political scientist at the University of Alberta in Canada.

Fukuda is scheduled to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao, parliament chief Wu Bangguo and Premier Wen Jiabao on Friday.

"China sees the trip by Fukuda, a dovish and pro-China politician, as a rare and golden chance to draw Japan closer," Nakanishi said.

VOLATILE TIES

But ties remain volatile and frayed by a string of issues, including a simmering dispute over natural gas, stemming from differences over a border separating the two countries' exclusive economic zones in the East China Sea.

"It would be good if the problem were resolved as soon as possible," Fukuda told reporters on Thursday when asked about the issue.

"But there are two parties involved, so we can reach an agreement only if our opinions chime," he said.

The two countries agreed in April to resolve the gas row by autumn of this year, but 11 rounds of talks have failed to produce results.

"The success of this visit cannot be judged only by whether any breakthrough is made in the East China Sea issue," said Liu Jiangyong, a professor at Tsinghua University. "It is just one part of bilateral relations."

Japan remains the biggest economic power in Asia, with a $4.3 trillion economy in 2006, against China's $2.7 trillion, according to World Bank data.

But China's economic importance to Japan is growing. Japan's trade with China including Hong Kong has surpassed that with the United States since 2004.

Despite the close economic ties, Tokyo and Beijing are deeply suspicious of each other's military ambitions.

Japan, worried about China's military build-up, has urged Beijing to be more transparent about its soaring defence outlays.

"While the atmosphere of Sino-Japanese relations seems to be moving in a better direction, at the substantive level there still remain problems and very delicate issues that could easily lead to confrontation," said Satoshi Amako, a China expert at Tokyo's Waseda University.

In an echo of Wen's high-profile visit to Japan in April, during which he jogged, chatted with farmers and pitched in a baseball game, Fukuda plans to speak to university students and elementary school children in Beijing.

He will also visit an economic development zone in the industrial city of Tianjin and the legendary home of ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius in the eastern city of Qufu.

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