Historical issues are resurging again between Japan and Korea and Japan and China. Why are these issues so difficult to solve or to reach agreement on? Is it impossible? Or is there any possibility of mitigating the confrontations over these issues? Japan undertook two joint studies of history in the near past, namely the Japan-Korea Joint Study of History in 2002–2005 and the Japan-China Joint Study of History in 2006–2009. However, it is not well known where the scholars of those countries differed most with each other and where they agreed to some extent. Professor Shinichi Kitaoka, who participated in the former dialogue as a member and as the leader of the Japanese team in the latter, reexamines those dialogues and discusses the difficulties and possibilities they hold.