From June 16th to 17th, the 2018 conference of China Japanese History Association was held in SDNU. The conference was jointly sponsored by China Japanese History Association, the School of History and Social Development of SDNU and Asian-pacific Research Center, which was to mark the 40th anniversary of the China-Japan Peace and Friendship Treaty. Yang Dongliang, director of China Japanese History Association and Wang Hongyu, vice president of Shandong Normal University, attended the opening ceremony and delivered speeches.

At the opening ceremony, Wang Hongyu introduced briefly about SDNU and the achievements made by the School of History and Social Development of SDNU in recent years. He said that this year is the 40th anniversary of the China-Japan Peace and Friendship Treaty. It is of great significance to hold the annual conference of China Japanese History Association, which will further promote academic exchanges, improve the level of scientific research, and promote new breakthroughs and new steps in the construction of the "double first class" of SDNU.

In his speech, Yang Dongliang said that in the history of more than two thousand years of communication between China and Japan, there were both the good time of the friendship and the memory of the opposites and conflicts, and the time of getting along with each other. The normalization of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations in 1972 ended the state of opposition between the two countries in modern times, and the China-Japan Peace and Friendship Treaty signed in 1978 opened a new stage of relations between the two countries.

Wang Hongyu and Yang Dongliang unveiled the plaque of "Asian-pacific Research Center of Shandong Normal University". Sun Lixiang, director of the Asian-pacific Research Center, introduced the purpose and future development plan of the center.

After the opening ceremony, more than 130 scholars from more than 60 universities and scientific research institutes, such as the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Peking University, Beijing Normal University, Nankai University, Fudan University, Northeast Normal University, Jilin University, Shandong University, Zhongshan University, Liaoning University, Fujian Normal University carried out academic exchanges and discussions.