No one expects the current Japanese and Chinese leaders to embrace, as Nakasone and Hu did two decades ago, but it is a sad state of affairs when the leaders of neighboring giants pretend not to see each other at international forums. If Nakasone, who now urges Koizumi to stop the Yasukuni pilgrimage, were to respond to Aso, he might simply extend the analogy: it is not in Japan’s national interest to continue to inhale Koizumi’s second-hand smoke.
没有人期望日本和中国现在的领导人如中曾根康弘和胡耀邦二十年前那样互相拥抱，但是相邻两个大国的领导人在国际会议上假装互相没看见这种情形令人悲哀。如果现在规劝小泉根康弘停止参拜靖国神社的中曾来回答麻生太郎，他可以简单地发挥一下这个类比：继续吸小泉的二手烟不符合日本的国家利益。