Seeking the way to heal wound

Editor's Note: Japan should issue a sincere apology for the suffering it inflicted on its neighbors to pave the way for an East Asian Community, former Japanese prime minister Yukio Hatoyama told China Daily's Cai Hong in Japan.

Their territorial dispute and other issues of history still stand in the way of a normal relationship between China and Japan.

In an exclusive interview with China Daily in Tokyo, former Japanese prime minister Yukio Hatoyama said the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors 14 Class-A war criminals among others, and the territorial dispute over the Diaoyu Islands, named the Senkakus in Japanese, were the primary political bottlenecks for improvements in the ties between the two countries.