Both nations can move forward to seek common ground and overcome differences, Beijing-Tokyo Forum participants say.
The dispute concerning the Diaoyu Islands is the major factor that worsened Chinese and Japanese people's feelings toward each other. How people look back at history also matters. Japan's foreign policy, which is designed to isolate China in Asia, also evoked negative feelings among Chinese people.
A slump in business cooperation amid freezing political relations between China and Japan after the Diaoyu Islands disputes has imposed a new challenge for the two countries.
China-Japan ties are at their worst situation in the past four decades, but the two countries cannot be against each other and must improve relations, a senior Japanese political figure said Saturday.
When Toshihiro Soejima, director of Genron NPO, began his annual fund-raising efforts for the Beijing-Tokyo forum this year, he said he had "worries that we won't be supported by companies" this year.
A former Chinese Ambassador to Japan Saturday said returning to the "very beginning point" of the normalization of China-Japan ties could be the only way out for deadlocked bilateral relations.
Japanese Ambassador to China Masato Kitera expressed deep concerns about the strained relationship between China and Japan when he was addressing the opening ceremony of Beijing-Tokyo Forum on Saturday.
China and Japan should rebuild faith to overcome difficulties and strive for sound bilateral ties and the peaceful development of East Asia.
The 9th Beijing-Tokyo Forum opened on Saturday with the theme of "peaceful development of East Asia and the mutual responsibilities of Japan and China".
Yasushi Akashi, former undersecretary of the United Nations, called for Japan and China to work together in establishing a crisis management system to reduce misunderstanding and bring intense bilateral relations to track
The China-Japan relations have been stuck in a stalemate since September 2012. People of insight in the two countries are pooling their wisdom, trying to find solutions to the situation.
Talks should take place between Beijing and Tokyo to forge a mechanism to manage the crisis over the overlapping air defense identification zones in the East China Sea.