Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya will visit China on Wednesday for talks with local counterpart Wang Yi in a bid to bring about positive developments in bilateral relations.
Earlier, Iwaya met with Premier Li Qiang of China’s State Council before beginning his talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. After that, Iwaya is scheduled to attend an event on cultural and humanitarian exchanges between the two countries.
This is Iwaya’s first visit as Japanese foreign minister to China. Earlier, Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi visited the People’s Republic of China in April 2023.
Last November, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japan’s new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba met on the margins of the APEC summit in Peru. At the time, Xi Jinping said the countries were “in a crucial period to improve and develop ties.” The leaders agreed to hold reciprocal visits by the countries’ foreign ministers and promote mutually beneficial and stable relations.
Relations between Japan and China are complicated by a territorial dispute over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea controlled by Tokyo, with Chinese ships periodically passing near the islands. Beijing also imposed a ban on Japanese seafood after Japan began discharging water in August 2023 that was used to cool reactors at the March 2011 earthquake-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
However, in September 2024, Beijing and Tokyo agreed that Chinese authorities would begin to gradually lift the ban and China would take part in IAEA-led monitoring of the water discharge process.
