Japan plans to send more delegation to the scheduled economic talks with China as bilateral relations between the two nations made recent improvements. A Japanese government official said that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to send six members of his cabinet to China for the high-level economic dialogue.
The Japanese government sent four ministers to the economic talks in April last year in Tokyo. Foreign Minister Taro Kono will lead the delegates and he plans to meet his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, and Premier Li Keqiang.
The visit of the ministers is prior to the scheduled visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Japan, his first visit to its Asian neighbor since he became president in 2013. According to a report from a Japanese media, the Chinese president is preparing for his visit to the country.
Another Japanese official said that this will be an opportunity to ramp up discussions on a wide range of topics before President Xi visits for the Group of 20 summits that will be held in Osaka in June. The Japanese prime minister invited President Xi to visit Japan during his first official visit to China in October after he won the election in 2012. The visit of Prime Minister Abe to China marks his government's effort to reset the unrestrained relations between the two nations which were caused by historical grievances and territorial disputes in the East China Sea. The two nations also compete over influence in the Asian Region.
The economic talks between the two nations are timely to Japan's plan to negotiate a trade deal with the United States and China's on-going tariff war with the western nation. According to speculations, trade issues are among the main concerns during the bilateral talks in Beijing this coming mid-April.
The delegates who will fly to China include industry minister Hiroshige Seko, farm minister Takamori Yoshikawa, transport minister Keiichi Ishii, Environment Minister Yoshiaki Harada, and regulatory reform minister Satsuki Katayama.
The scheduled meeting will be the fifth round of economic talks between the two nations since they started theirs on and off economic ties in 2007. The talks between the two nations were suspended for 8 years between the third and fourth meeting because of territorial issues concerning Japan's move to place the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea under state control in 2012. The inhabited island with a Chinese name "Diaoyu" is claimed by China.
