Japan and China agreed in their latest meeting to keep talking to sort out high tensions, but the dialogue only confirms the wide gap between them on issues from past history to future energy excavation.
Foreign ministers late Saturday held the two nations' third major talks since their relations nose-dived last month and said they would look forward in the wake of virulent anti-Japanese demonstrations in China.
Meeting at an Asia-Europe foreign ministers meeting in Kyoto, Japan, the ministers agreed to set up a joint study of their common history and to hold talks on a potentially huge disputed gas field in the East China Sea.
But even if the nations will keep talking, there is no sign they will come to any consensus.
"The meeting showed their real intention of mending bilateral ties and it also clarified what the problems are," said Masahiro Wakabayashi, professor of international politics at the University of Tokyo.
"What they need is self-restraint and continued dialogue. But it seems it will take some time to repair relations, especially as they are heading toward the sensitive time of World War II commemorations," Wakabayashi said.
The history issue was the immediate trigger for the current spat, with China furious at Tokyo's approval of a textbook written by avowed nationalists who believe Japan is too apologetic about the past.
The foreign ministers clashed bitterly about textbooks during Saturday's meeting, according to a Japanese official.
Li Zhaoxing (李肇星) of China blasted as "wrong" the "textbook of the Japanese rightists" and his counterpart Nobutaka Machimura voiced concern over "extreme expressions" on Japan in Chinese books such as not recognizing its post-war aid to Beijing, the official said.
On the other issue where they agreed to expand dialogue -- energy -- the foreign ministers were also at loggerheads.
Japan demanded China give information on its drilling in the East China Sea and Li responded that the demarcation line set by Tokyo was invalid, the official said.
The official said Li also renewed China's strong opposition to visits by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to the Yasukuni shrine, which honors Japanese war dead including convicted war criminals.
Koizumi, who has gone each year to the Shinto sanctuary in Tokyo since taking office in 2001, has defended his pilgrimages as a sign of respect for the dead.
On April 22, he used a Jakarta summit of Asian and African leaders to offer a fresh apology for suffering caused by Japan, a day before he met with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).
Machimura also visited Beijing before the Jakarta conference for a round of tense talks.
China said after the latest meeting that Japan needed to show more than words to exorcise its war ghosts.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang (秦剛) said Li hoped Japan can "implement in action its introspection and apology over history."
Li again refused to apologize for the demonstrations in China, although Japanese officials said he promised at least to study compensation and that Machimura voiced appreciation that the protests have subsided.
The two foreign ministers in general terms said they wanted stable relations. The issue is all the more important as China is Japan's biggest trading partner, with a growing number of Japanese firms using China as a manufacturing base.
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