TOKYO, May 10 (Xinhua) -- A major Japanese business group urged Tuesday the nation's leaders to improve relations with China in a bid to build a future-oriented relationship.

    The Japan Association of Corporate Executives, or Keizai Doyukai, said in the "Suggestions on Future Japan-China Relations "that mutual trust and respect between both governments are indispensable to stability and prosperity of Asia and to the world at large.

    The establishment of friendly relations and development of economic and trade cooperation not only benefit themselves and Asia, but also contribute to peace and stability of the international community, it said.

    The 13-page proposal called for efforts from both governments to improve ties. The two governments should seek common ground while putting aside their differences, and build a new, future-oriented relation, it said.

    To ensure Japan's security and prosperity in the 21st century, maintaining and improving friendly ties with China and other countries in East Asia is of the same importance as maintaining the Japan-U.S. relations, the proposal said.

    It is particularly important to secure and develop friendly ties with China, which is a driving force of world economy and whose political influence is growing, it said, urging the Japanese government to attach more importance to its Asian diplomacy.

    According to the proposal, the first step in building a future-oriented Japan-China relationship should be creating opportunities for re-opening summit meetings between the heads of state of both countries.

    To that end, the proposal called on Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to reconsider his annual visit to the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine , a practice that is the major stumbling block to bilateral ties.

    The shrine honors convicted Class-A Japanese WWII war criminals along with over 2 million war dead.

    The proposal said a national and non-religious memorial should be established.

    Japan's constitution forbids government officials from being engaged in religious activities in their official capacity.

    The group also suggested conducting a joint study of history by experts from Japan and China, and applying the research results tothe curriculums on history in Japanese high schools.

    Increasing exchanges at all levels in various fields is also essential to a future-oriented Japan-China relation, the proposal said. It proposed enhancing exchange and communication between governments, defense departments as well as those between the young people in China and Japan.

    The proposal said they hoped that Japan and China can establishan all-round strategic partnership and achieve peace, prosperity and cooperation in security, economy and other fields.

    It said that neither country should interfere with the other's internal affairs or seek hegemony. The two neighbors should construct a cooperative relationship for their own interests, stability of the international community, and particularly for the establishment of an East Asian community, it added.

    The proposal also called for cooperation between Japan and China in areas such as investment, trade, the integration of East Asia economy, promotion of energy-efficiency and environmental protection.

    Keizai Doyukai is a major Japanese business group, boasting a membership of 1,400 top executives from some 900 corporations. The proposal was based on suggestions collected from Japanese business circles since last year, it said.

    Local media noted that it is rare for a major Japanese business group to present such a long proposal over Japan-China relations to the government. The act suggested that the Japanese business circle was concerned about the current relations between the two countries. Enditem