Foreign Minister Taro Aso held separate meetings with his South Korean and Chinese counterparts earlier this week -- the first such get-together in five months and one year, respectively. Although he managed to clinch agreements on some bilateral issues, Japan's relations with its closest neighbors remain far from normal.

Mr. Aso and South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon reached an agreement that the two countries will hold two-day talks in mid-June on the demarcation of their exclusive economic zones around disputed islets in the Sea of Japan known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea. The talks started in 1996 but were called off in 2000.

An agreement reached between Mr. Aso and Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing calls for the acceleration of talks at the bureau-chief level to solve the gas and oil development dispute in the East China Sea. In a May 18 meeting, the two sides agreed to arrange the next round of talks as soon as possible, although Japan and China rejected each other's proposal for joint development of gas fields. As in the case of the Tokyo-Seoul dispute in the Sea of Japan, the two countries disagree over the boundaries of their exclusive economic zones. The disputed islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China also lie in this area.