A senior Japanese government official on Wednesday suggested the
governments of Japan and China would narrow their differences and
resolve disputes in a spirit of "facing the future".
"Although Japan and China have disagreements and even disputes
on certain issues I believe they can be resolved if we always
uphold the spirit of facing the future," said Japanese
Vice-Minister of Education Kondo Shinji to Xinhua at the Fourth
China-Japan University President Forum.
Japan's political links with China have cooled significantly
over the past year due to a range of disputes many associated with
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to the
Yasukuni Shrine honoring Second World War criminals.
However, the stand-off has not had a significant affect on
bilateral collaboration in other fields such as education.
"Youth exchanges are of great importance in promoting long-term
friendship between Japan and China," Kondo said. He noted that more
Japanese universities and education institutions were willing to
play a positive role in exchange and cooperation programs.
"As far as I know around 2,000 Japanese and Chinese colleges and
universities have so far signed agreements of cooperation," he told
Xinhua.
Kondo pointed out that Japan was the second largest partner,
behind the United States, with China on cooperation in advanced
education.
Statistics from Japan show about 120,000 overseas students are
studying there with 80,000 from China.
"If my prediction is correct the figure will continue to grow in
the coming years," Kondo added.
He stressed that Japan and China had a long history of exchanges
in culture, science and technology. Japan was keen to continue with
this tradition and to expand bilateral educational cooperation.
"Where I'm standing now is the capital of the great Tang Dynasty,
and since then, many Japanese students have come here to study and
brought knowledge back home to help the country develop," Kondo
said.
He hoped stronger bilateral exchanges and cooperation in the
educational fields would also help China prosper.
Japan's education ministry proposed to invite about 1,100
Chinese high school students to study and the first 200 would leave
in May, Kondo said.
In addition, the ministry was also holding consultations with
its Chinese counterpart on the next five-year plan of the
Japan-China overseas student program from 2006-2010, he added.
.
His ministry was considering increasing the budget for overseas
Chinese students who studiedf in expensive private
universities.
(Xinhua News Agency May 11, 2006)