It will be hard for Japan to eliminate obstacles in relations with its neighboring countries if it fails to face up to history, said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Kong Quan Thursday.

Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said recently that Japan, China and South Korea should recognize and surmount their difference in opinions toward the Yasukuni Shrine, and make efforts to build up sound relations.

Machimura also said Japan has no such history textbook that glorifies its militaristic past. China and South Korea did not point out what is exactly wrong in the textbooks compiled by the right-wing force.

Kong said it will do no good to Japan if it continues to take an inimical attitude toward the fair concerns of the victimized countries' people, and cannot acknowledge and solve its own problems on the history issue.

(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2005)