More than 40 Chinese and Japanese university students gathered in Beijing Wednesday to discuss such topics as employment, Sino-Japanese friendship and causes for the deterioration of mutual impression between the people of the two countries.

Altogether, 23 Japanese students and 21 Chinese students joined the 24th China-Japan Student Conference, which opened Wednesday.

During the eight-day meeting, students of both countries are divided in four groups to confer on the topics of China-Japan economy, friendship, life, culture and careers.

The reasons for the deterioration of the two peoples' mutual impression poses a focus of the meeting. Students will discuss the topic by an exchange of views and through responding to questionnaire, and make a report on the topic at the end of the meeting.

Li Hao, one of the participants, said he holds that the exchanges between the university students of both countries are necessary, for face-to-face exchanges are "more true" than acquiring information from media.

China-Japan Student Conference, set up in 1986, is aimed at promoting exchanges and understanding between the students of the two countries. To date, 14 sessions have been held in China and nine held in Japan.

Source: Xinhua