中日关系：绽放

But ties between Asia\'s two biggest powers remain delicate

FIRST came the “ice-breaking”, then the “ice-melting”. Now, Hu Jintao hopes, comes “everlasting warm spring”. A series of reciprocal visits over the past 20 months by the leaders of China and Japan have brought a thaw in bilateral relations. On May 6th Mr Hu, China\'s president, began a state visit, China\'s first to Japan in a decade; at five days, it will also be Mr Hu\'s longest single foray to any country. The next day he and Japan\'s prime minister, Yasuo Fukuda, signed a blueprint for ties that represented a “new starting-point”, with regular top-level visits in future and both military and cultural exchanges.

The latest freeze began in 1998, when Mr Hu\'s predecessor, Jiang Zemin, came to Tokyo demanding a lavish written apology for Japan\'s wartime past. A growing number of Japanese had come to feel that their country had apologised enough for its wartime brutality. Besides, they resented the way a rising China played on war-guilt to extract concessions from its rich neighbour. Relations hit rock bottom under Junichiro Koizumi, Japan\'s prime minister from 2001-06. Top-level contacts between the two countries were suspended after Mr Koizumi began making devil-may-care visits to Yasukuni, the Tokyo shrine that honours not just Japan\'s war dead but also executed war criminals.

Mr Koizumi\'s successor, Shinzo Abe, a right-wing hawk, nevertheless broke with Mr Koizumi\'s line by visiting Beijing as his first gesture in office. He refrained from visiting Yasukuni. The Chinese were grateful. They were overjoyed when Mr Fukuda took over after a year. He enjoys that double-edged accolade of being a “friend of China”. He has long criticised politicians\' visits to Yasukuni and believes that good relations with Japan\'s Asian neighbours are paramount.

Mr Hu and Mr Fukuda had plenty to talk about. China has overtaken America as Japan\'s biggest trading partner. China is hungry for know-how, and Japan thinks it can be of particular help in providing environmental technology—after all, Chinese pollution reaches Japan. For Mr Fukuda, whose domestic standing is shaky, a big prize would be a Chinese commitment to tackle climate change, a big theme at the G8 summit, which Japan will host in July. As for Mr Hu, he will be thankful if his visit passes without strong protests over Tibet.

As the two leaders discussed a panda to replace Ling Ling, who died at Tokyo\'s Ueno Zoo last week, they stressed improved relations. For instance, the two countries\' armies have embarked on confidence-building measures such as port calls by naval ships. Elsewhere, diplomats point to the way a food scare in Japan earlier this year over tainted Chinese dumplings was handled calmly by the authorities on both sides, even as Japan\'s mass media whipped up hysteria.

Disputes remain, however. One of the biggest is over gasfields in the East China Sea. Despite four official rounds of negotiations, the two countries have failed to reach agreement on joint development, thanks to touchiness about sovereignty. Originally, Mr Hu\'s visit was to be the occasion for a deal. Still, an enforced bonhomie has set the tone for this visit, with Mr Hu planning a spot of convivial ping-pong. Not long ago comments by China\'s leaders, thundering editorials and crude films about the second world war did much to stoke anti-Japanese nationalism—violent street protests broke out in 2005, and in 2004 Chinese football fans went on the rampage after their team was beaten by Japan. Now, China wants to tamp such nationalism down. Anti-Japan behaviour at the Olympics would be a disaster.

It may come as a relief to both sides that, according to Horizon Research, a polling outfit, the attitudes of urban Chinese are turning more positive towards Japan. A growing number think historical differences should be set aside. But it will take a lot more ping-pong to erase the impression of many Japanese that they are loathed in China more than they are admired.