Unwavering China-Japan economic relations hardly do without political trust

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TOKYO, Nov. 22 -- A Japanese business delegation wrapped up a visit to Beijing on Thursday after meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang and other senior officials.

It is the biggest group of Japan's business community to visit China since bilateral ties between the two Asian neighbors soured last September due to a heightened territorial dispute.

Despite a joint call for even closer economic relations, the visit failed to bring about any surprise in breaking the political stalemate, the Japanese media said.

As the second and third largest economies in the world, China and Japan are in need of each other in terms of trade and economic cooperation. However, the momentum has been undermined by the continuity of political uncertainty.

According to the Japan External Trade Organization, Japan's total trade with China dropped 10.8 percent to 147.3 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of 2013, down for the first time in four years, while investment to China tumbled 31 percent.

The Japanese economy has been recovering this year on the back of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's massive monetary and fiscal expansionary policies, or the so-called "Abenomics", of which depreciating yen and boosting Japan's exports is considered as a pillar.

Being one of the most important markets for Japan and the one with the hugest potential, China means a lot for the success of Abenomics.

However, it is difficult to maintain a smooth development of economic cooperation with the two governments still at squabbles. Without stable political relations, confidence of the business community on both sides would undoubtedly be dented.

The phrase "warm economic ties, cold political relations" has been used since the 1990s to describe China-Japan relations. The recent disputes, however, have renewed concerns that economic ties are no longer "warm" amid "cold political relations."

If the Japanese leaders continue to deny the existing dispute over the Diaoyu Islands and visit the war-linked Yusukuni Shrine, they are creating diplomatic and political headwinds that are certainly detrimental to the China-Japan economic ties.

Such political uncertainty, which Japan is fully responsible, has already aroused concerns among both Japanese and Chinese businessmen.

A worsening outlook for economic cooperation is in neither side 's interests. To prevent that happening, it is time for Japan to make sincere efforts to rebuild trust and restore political ties with China.

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