Japan not ready to accept China's rise, says Chinese foreign minister

Japan is not ready for the rise of China and this is the root of issues between Asia's two largest economies, Foreign Minister Wang Yi says.

"The problems boil down to whether Japan can accept and welcome a developing and rising China," he said yesterday.

"Japan has already benefited from the development of China, but … it is not fully prepared in many ways [for China to become the major power]."

Wang, who was speaking to diplomats and scholars at an annual foreign relations forum in Beijing, urged Japan's leaders to respect the nation's wartime history and to "reconcile with the countries Japan invaded" as the 70th anniversary of the end of the second world war approaches.

"It remains a big challenge for Japan: whether its leaders would like to keep the country in the defendant's seat in the court of history, or to truly be reconciled with other countries," Wang said.

President Xi Jinping called for more informal exchanges between the two nations last month as he met members of a 3,000-strong Japanese delegation in Beijing.