Japan, China enter 2006 with problems beset by more problems
(Kyodo)
Updated: 2005-12-30 16:53

Japan and China, whose relations went from bad to worse in 2005, enter the new year best by a long list of bilateral problems and no plans in sight to solve them.

Weighing down the relations are differences over issues ranging from Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine to gas and oil development rights in the East China Sea.

And no talks have yet been scheduled between the two countries to work those problems out, either on the level of their leaders or among diplomats.

"We have reached the end of 2005 facing difficulties in communication on the political front," a Japanese diplomat in Beijing said. "As for how to break this deadlock, we're still trying to figure that out."

The biggest issue between the two countries remains Koizumi's shrine visits.

China says the visits to Yasukuni, which enshrines 14 Class-A war criminals along with 2.47 million war dead, is tantamount to glorifying the militarism that led Japan to its 1931-1945 occupation of Chinese territory.