On May 29th, 2014, the public symposium on the “Avoidance of the Crisis Between Japan and China over the East China Sea Issue Through Dialogue - the Japan-China Non-Governmental Exploration Into Safety of Maritime Navigation” was held in Tokyo as hosted by Sasakawa Japan-China Friendship Fund of Sasakawa Peace Foundation. Jiro Hanyu, Director of Sasakawa Peace Foundation, and Prof. Zhu Feng, Vice President of the Institute of International and Strategic Studies (IISS), Peking University (PKU), introduced the process and achievement of the project entitled Japan-China Dialogue on Maritime Safety as well as its future research subjects. Yu Tiejun, Associate Professor and Assistant President of IISS, PKU, made an important speech on “How to Avoid the Occurrence of Crisis: View on the Possibility of Confidence-Building Measures and Related Subjects from the Perspective of China”. In the end, representatives from both sides jointly answered the questions from the audience.

The non-governmental project “Japan-China Dialogue on Maritime Safety” started from August of 2013. After three rounds of dialogues, the scholars from both sides formed a common report and proposed calmful and objective opinions about the current severe relationship between Japan and China. This public symposium aimed to introduce the research results co-achieved by the two sides to the public. At the moment when the China – Japan relationship is down in the dumps unprecedentedly since the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries, this public symposium has attracted the attention of all parties: more than 180 audiences from academic community, news media, government departments and civil society attended the symposium.