By Li Fei (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-12-29 07:13

QUFU, Shandong: Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's visit to the hometown of Confucius on Sunday is a wise decision and could help the two countries and people "inch closer", a leading expert on Confucianism said.

"Fukuda's visit to Qufu, which is considered the center for Confucianism culture, demonstrates his respect towards Chinese culture," Yang Chaoming, dean of the Institute of Confucius Cultural Studies at Qufu Normal University, said.

"It would, to some extent, help win Chinese people's hearts and minds, and could help inch the countries and people closer together."

Given the special Sino-Japan relations amid the backdrop of the thawing political ties between the two countries, the decision to visit Qufu, Yang said, was a "wise" one.

"It's a statesman's decision," said Yang, who has been to Japan several times as a visiting fellow at universities there.

Fukuda's trip to China is the second by a Japanese leader in 15 months, after his predecessor Shinzo Abe paid a visit to China in October last year.

China and Japan had ceased high-level visits during the 2001-2006 premiership of Junichiro Koizumi because of his visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine, where war criminals who invaded China were honored.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited Japan in April this year, a visit billed as an "ice-breaking" trip.

"The decision to visit the birthplace of a man who advocates a harmonious society and world is also of great symbolic significance," Yang said.

Fukuda, he said, was approaching Sino-Japan relations with a long-term vision, as the Qufu visit was likely to leave a favorable impression of him among Chinese people.

(China Daily 12/29/2007 page2)