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China's Wen urges Japan to study history more

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told a group of Japanese business leaders in Beijing on Monday that Japan should study history more, Kyodo news agency said, comments that come at a time of chilly bilateral ties.

Despite growing economic links, Sino-Japanese relations have been frayed in recent years by a host of issues, at the core of which are disputes stemming from what China perceives as Japan's failure to atone for its wartime past.

Wen, however, made no remarks about Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni shrine for war dead, Kyodo quoted Hiroshi Okuda, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, as telling reporters in Beijing.

Sino-Japanese relations have chilled markedly due to Koizumi's annual visits to Yasukuni shrine where 14 Class-A war criminals, including executed wartime prime minister Hideki Tojo, are enshrined among Japan's 2.5 million war dead.

Koizumi, who last visited the shrine in January 2004, has defended the visits, saying they were meant to pray for peace.

Read entire article at Reuters