Japanese and Chinese scholars held their first meeting this week in Beijing on a joint project to study both countries' ancient and modern history. Launch of the project had been agreed to in October by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Hu Jintao during their summit in Beijing.
The goal of the project is to promote mutual understanding through an objective approach to history. The project's results are scheduled to be published in 2008, the 30th year after the normalization of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
In recent years, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to Yasukuni Shrine, Japan's war-related shrine, as well as mass anti-Japanese demonstrations in China had heightened tensions between the two countries.