At a time when the third Beijing-Tokyo Forum, between senior officials and politicians from China and Japan was held in Beijing on August 27, a group of youth elites, the likely future leaders of China and Japan are ensuring that they won't lag behind events.

About 50 students from Peking University and the University of Tokyo, who vow to overcome misunderstandings, have just concluded their first round of the Jing Forum in early September in Peking University.

Participants scattered into 4 sub-groups on various topics, including the economy, security, history and the environment.

Okubo Tomoo, who considers Chinese food, especially moon cakes, friendship and low prices as his three treasures during his Chinese trip, is a student majoring in the liberal arts in the University of Tokyo. He is one of those who changed their impression on China after visiting.

"In books in Japan, they really exaggerated that Chinese are impolite, or the daily life is not convenient, so that was the impression before I came to China. I think those kinds of media or books are preventing Chinese and Japanese from understanding each other. "

Students from Tokyo University, Nakatani Eri (left 1st), Okubo Tomoo(left 2nd), Hideyuji Furuta(right 2nd), Kato Yoshikazu(right 1st), posed for a group picture at the second Jing Forum in Beijing on Sep 2, 2007. [Photo: CRIENGLISH.COM]

Thus Jing Forum, aiming to connect future leaders, has built a platform for youth to know their counterparts better. Tomoo used "exciting" to describe how he feels about the Jing forum.

"Because there are other similar programs, the big difference in the Jing forum with others is that we have to prepare a lot in Japan. Before I came to the Jing forum, I read ten books about economics, had lectures from Japanese teachers and read over 120 papers only in the economic section."

Tomoo divided the Jing forum into two parts, the serious discussion about the four topics, also called the hard part, and the soft part: sightseeing, eating and dancing together with members. It's fun to just to have tasty food in Beijing, of course, but the Jing forum doesn't stop there.

"If we just feel friendship in the soft part, in the future, when we get our job as an officer, we sometimes simply can't discuss any more for our own benefits. We are just friends, but we have experienced high level discussions. We know it's not that easy to build the relationship. But we can use our remaining university lives to improve something for that, not just friendship, we can go further from there."

Besides discussion and academic seminars, forum delegates also paid visits to diversified locations in Beijing, such as the Bank of Japan, the Liu Minying Ecological Corporation and the Marco Polo Bridge.

The forum was first initiated in 2006 by promising students from the two universities. The Student International Communication Association of Peking University (SICA) is one of the organizers. The president of SICA, also the China section of Jing Forum, Terry Tian has this to say.

"We have programs with the U.S., Europe and South Korea. The Jing Forum is our program with Tokyo University. I felt the Jing forum to be the most important of these, so I decided to take charge of it myself."

Kato Yoshikazu, vice president of Jing forum, has taken part in the project for two years already. He talks about the difference from the first one.

"Since it's a continuous program, it can't be too different. Maybe for our members, some of the topics are a little bit different. Last year, the Sino-Japan relationship was very sensitive. This year the politics surrounding the event are better than last year. We have to find sponsors, media support, and our social contact is better."

But this year, the Jing forum has a wider ranger of delegates. Besides Chinese and Japanese, they have also recruited a German international student and a Korean to participate in the project. This is because both sides believe that history belongs to the world, not only to China and Japan.

The forum will move on to Tokyo in late September to finish its other half round.