Newsfrom Japan
Tokyo, Sept. 25 (Jiji Press)–Former Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya will visit China for four days from Sunday as the new head of Japan’s Association for the Promotion of International Trade, a group for friendship with China, it was learned Friday.
Work is underway to schedule meetings between Iwaya, a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and high-ranking Chinese government officials in Beijing, association sources said.
The association had planned to send a delegation to China in June. Following the death in June of Yohei Kono, former speaker of Japan’s House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament, and former head of the association, Gaku Hashimoto, a Lower House member of the LDP, visited China as acting chairman of the association.
While Japan-China relations have been strained due to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks last November over a possible contingency concerning Taiwan, moves to promote exchanges between the two countries are taking place ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit to be held in China in November this year.
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[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
