BEIJING - Former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Friday that the dispute over the Diaoyu Islands should be left to future generations to decide.

"I think we should learn from the wisdom of (former) Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and (former) Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka who reached a verbal agreement to put the issue aside and leave it to future generations to decide," Hatoyama said at the Third Global Think Tank Summit.

Hatoyama said that countries and regions including the ASEAN, China, Japan and the Republic of Korea are the core of East Asian community, and the ASEAN Plus Three Cooperation is extremely important for a peaceful Asia.

"The East Asian community is not a closed Asia, but rather an open Asia with a flexible attitude and the participation of various countries," Hatoyama said.