Japan Encouraged by Frequent Meetings With Chinese

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BEIJING — Japanese diplomats said they’re encouraged by an unprecedented frequency of meetings by the leaders of Japan and China, underscoring improving relations between the former foes and Asia’s two biggest economies.

Japanese and Chinese leaders met four times in the past eight months and will have four more opportunities to get together this year, showing “steady progress” in relations between the two countries, a Japanese government spokesman, Kazuo Kodama, said.

“The discussions are getting deeper and broader,” Mr. Kodama said yesterday at a press briefing in Beijing. “Bilateral relations have reached a stage where leaders can exchange views in a frank and candid manner on a broad range of issues, and they don’t have to avoid discussing anything.”

Prime Minister Fukuda of Japan is building on the 2006 China visit by his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, celebrated as an ice-breaking trip that thawed the often frosty relations between the two countries.

Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura arrived Saturday in Beijing, where he’s scheduled to meet Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi. Komura will also meet State Councilor Dai Bingguo, the highest-ranking government official responsible for China’s foreign relations.

Relations were helped by an agreement this year to jointly develop East China Sea gas fields that may supply Asia’s two biggest energy consumers as much as 364 billion cubic feet of natural gas and 18 million barrels of oil.

China claims seabed rights to the edge of the continental shelf, close to the Japanese island of Okinawa, and has started pumping gas from the fields. Japan says the boundary is halfway between the countries.


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