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TOKYO : Scholars from Japan and China agreed on Tuesday on a framework for a joint study of their past, including sensitive topics such as a controversial war shrine.
The joint study group of 10 historians from each country wound up a two-day meeting in Tokyo that aims to overcome longstanding tensions over their shared history.
The latest talks came after a regional uproar following Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's denial this month that Japan coerced thousands of Asian 'comfort women' into brothels during World War II.
"It is a difficult task, but we have made a good start," said Shinichi Kitaoka, a history professor at Tokyo University who heads the Japanese side.
The joint history review was agreed to by Abe when he paid a fence-mending visit to China in September. The two countries have set a target date of publication of their joint study in 2008.
During the meeting, the two sides agreed to discuss how the two countries recognise their history by jointly highlighting key topics, including the Yasukuni Shrine which honours Japanese war dead including top war criminals.
Relations were badly strained under Abe's predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, due to his annual visits to the contentious shrine.
But they did not pick the comfort women issue as a subject for discussion, Kitaoka said without elaborating.
They agreed to resume talks in December after each side finishes its own draft, so that they can compile a joint review covering thousands of years of history, including periods of goodwill between the two civilisations.
The most bitterly disputed points involve Japan's 1931-1945 occupation of China, which remains a major cause of anger six decades later.
Beijing maintains 35 million Chinese were either killed or injured, most of them civilians, due to Japan's aggression, but the number is disputed by many Japanese historians.
China has long charged that Japan has failed to atone for its wartime conduct, while Japan accuses China of ignoring the post-war period - including Tokyo's economic support to Beijing - in its history textbooks. - AFP/de
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