Japan and China agreed Saturday to launch a joint study on their history, Japanese government officials said. The agreement was concluded in a meeting between Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura and his Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing on the sidelines of Asia-Europe foreign ministerial talks in Kyoto.
While Machimura proposed that they decide concretely how to promote the project by the end of this year, Li said he will accept the framework of the study group either as Japan-China or Japan-China-South Korea, according to the officials.