Chinese prime minister in Tokyo

Last Modified: 12 Apr 2007
By: Lindsey Hilsum

A historic meeting between the Chinese and Japanese leaders has taken place in Tokyo.

Warming up in the park was the Chinese prime minister in Tokyo this morning.

He likes to see himself as a man of the people... but never before the Japanese people. He introduced himself to a fellow park goer saying: "Hello, I'm Wen Jiabao". "Yes I know," she said, "I saw you on the telly."

There was a more formal meeting later - with Emperor Akihito. All this is shown on both Japanese and Chinese TV, a sign that the governments of Asia's two most powerful countries want to mend relations.

Some 70 years ago was the Japanese assault on Shanghai and Chinese bitterness over the Japanese occupation in the 1930s and 40s has never completely faded.

While Japanese leaders showed remorse after defeat in World War Two, modern politicians have been less keen on atoning for the past.

But today, Wen Jiabao, addressing the Japanese parliament, went out of his way to say that the Japanese people had suffered too.

Wen Jiabao said: "The Chinese people suffered calamity during Japan's war of invasion. We suffered great loss, wounds and pain which words cannot express. But the war also caused the Japanese people great hardship, and the older generation must remember this vividly."

"The Chinese people suffered calamity during Japan's war of invasion. We suffered great loss, wounds and pain which words cannot express. But the war also caused the Japanese people great hardship, and the older generation must remember this vividly."
Wen Jiabao, Chinese Prime Minister

It was the former Japanese leader Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the Yasakuni shrine, where the remains of the war dead, including war criminals lie, which angered the Chinese. But then Japan grew angry in 2005 when Chinese rioters attacked Japanese interests in Beijing - and the Chinese authorities did nothing to stop them.

Today the new Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe was keen to talk economics as China is Japan's biggest trade partner.

He said: "It's valuable to us that the top leaders meet in person to correctly address the issues faced in the economy. The talks will lead us to a longer and more stable relationship."

What remains unspoken, at least in public, is each country's fear of the other.

Both countries are building up their military. China's economy will soon overtake that of Japan and it's inevitable that, in the next decade, China's rise will change the balance of power in Asia.

For the moment, at least, it seems the governments of China and Japan want to manage that historical shift together.