Japan ties set to improve despite twists and turns

How to solve this weighty problem?

After Japan and China signed the Treaty of Peace and Friendship in 1978, former leader Deng Xiaoping addressed a news conference at a Japanese press club. I did not attend the event, but I still remember the content of his speech. When talking of the dispute between the two countries over the Diaoyu Islands, Deng said: "Our generation is not wise enough to solve this problem, but our next generations will surely be wiser than us and can find a solution acceptable to all of us."

But the problem has become more and more complicated and difficult to solve. How can the next generations and governments solve it if the current stalemate continues? As a friend used a Chinese saying to explain the problem, "it weighs only 0.2 ji (100 grams) when put down but 1,000 ji when lifted up".

Harunobu Kato is a professor of law at Musashino University and a NHK commentator.