China and Japan are not strategically and mentally ready for a mature relationship, Hidenao Nakagawa, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's head of policy, told a policy forum. We must build a mature relationship under which we may see friction and cooperation coexisting, he said, advocating the establishment of a free trade agreement between the two nations. Nakagawa met with Communist Party officials in Beijing earlier this month in a visit aimed to ease tensions created by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors 14 Class A war criminals among the country's 2.5 million war dead. Admitting that discussions over the shrine visits found no room for compromise, Nakagawa called on China to look at Japan's post-war history of peace and democracy.
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