Former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda passed away in Tokyo on October 22, 2026, at the age of 90. He served as prime minister from 2007 to 2008 and made improving ties with China a priority. Even after retiring from politics in 2012, he kept arguing for dialogue between the two countries.
Yasuo Fukuda attends the 15th Beijing-Tokyo Forum in 2019.
Fukuda's death comes at a difficult time for China-Japan relations. His approach is a reminder of the choice facing the two neighbors: how to handle their differences without letting them derail the relationship.
During Fukuda's premiership, China and Japan issued a joint statement in May 2008 on comprehensively promoting a mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests. He consistently stressed the importance of the four political documents that underpin bilateral ties. In a 2023 interview with Xinhua, he said that as close neighbors with deep cultural ties, the two countries should follow the principles set out in those documents and avoid conflict.
Relations between the two countries, however, are not shaped by diplomacy alone. Students abroad, tourists visiting each other's countries and businesses working across borders all shape how people in each country see the other. These exchanges cannot settle political disputes, but they give people a chance to look beyond them.
Ji Weiwei, now an associate professor at Jinan University's School of International Studies, was a student at Ritsumeikan University in Japan in 2007. He points to the sports exchanges encouraged under Fukuda as an example of how people in the two countries could connect.
"Fukuda was an important witness to, promoter of and guardian of China-Japan friendship," Ji said. He added that genuine friendship must face up to the war, respect historical truth and safeguard peace.
Fukuda was also clear about the importance of remembering history. In 2018, he visited the Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, laid a wreath and wrote the words "Peaceful East Asia."
His stance reflected a central challenge in China-Japan relations: building a better relationship does not mean setting history aside. Exchanges can help people understand one another, but they are no substitute for honesty about the past.
Fukuda's ties with China also extended to Guangdong. He first visited Shenzhen in 1995 and later spoke about the city's development and its growing high-tech sector, which had caught the attention of Japanese businesses. Shenzhen's transformation gave him a firsthand look at China's economic change and the opportunities it could bring. However, closer business ties alone cannot resolve political disagreements or differences over history and security.
Former Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba paid tribute to Fukuda, saying Japan must "sincerely cherish our relationship with China," a lesson he said Fukuda had left behind.
For people in both countries, the state of bilateral relations has practical consequences for travel, education and business, as well as for the chance to get to know one another. Fukuda could not erase the differences between China and Japan, but his years of engagement with China showed why it matters to keep talking, especially when relations are strained.
Reporter: Yao Jingsen
Photo: CFP
