Japan trade minister on visit to China
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-02-21 19:29

Japanese Trade and Economics Minister Toshihiro Nikai flies to China on Tuesday to repair frayed ties and meet Premier Wen Jiabao in what will be China's highest-level public reception of a Tokyo official in months.

China-Japan relations have been troubled by a range of issues from a scramble for influence and energy to territorial disputes, but mostly by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to a war shrine China sees as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.

Nikai will also meet State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan and Commerce Minister Bo Xilai in two days of talks which will centre on economic and trade issues, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters on Tuesday.

On Monday, Li Changchun, who sits on the Chinese Communist Party's omnipotent nine-member Politburo Standing Committee, said China and Japan were experiencing the "most difficult times" in bilateral ties since normalising ties in 1972.

Li told Hidenao Nakagawa, chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's Policy Research Council who is also visiting Beijing, that the root of the problem lay in the shrine visits, the Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday.

Li said China hoped Japan would take concrete measures to eliminate the obstacles and called for both sides sides to draw lessons from history.

China and Japan held vice-ministerial-level strategic talks in Tokyo this month -- the first since October when Koizumi last paid his respects at the Yasukuni shrine.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao met Koizumi on the sidelines of international meetings last year, but they haven't been seen publicly receiving visiting Japanese politicians since October.

The two countries haven't exchanged visits of state heads for years either, prompting analysts to worry that the long-standing political chill might harm prospering economic ties. China replaced the United States as Japan's top trade partner in 2004.

"Bilateral economic cooperation is generally good at present, but we also hope the Japanese side can take a sincere attitude to resolve the existing political difficulties between China and Japan", Liu, the spokesman, said at a regular news conference.

"I think it will help the progress of trade and economic relations", Liu said, adding in the talks the two sides are likely to address the issue of a disputed gas field on the East China Sea as well.

Japan invaded and occupied large parts of China from 1931 to 1945 and memories of Japanese atrocities still run deep in China. The Yasukuni shrine honours 14 convicted A-Class war criminals along with Japan's 2.5 million war dead.