Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to bolster cooperation and friendship between Japan and China in a key policy speech yesterday before making the first official trip to Beijing by a Japanese leader in seven years.
Abe said that Japan and China are both responsible for the region’s peace and prosperity, which he hopes to achieve by boosting exchanges between them.
Abe is to hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) during his three-day visit.
Photo: AP
“Tomorrow, I will visit China,” Abe said. “As we unflaggingly exchange summit diplomacy, I will also deepen the exchanges between the two peoples at all levels of activity from business cooperation to sports.”
Abe’s visit comes as the two countries mark the 40th anniversary of the Treaty of Japan-China Peace and Friendship, and follows Li’s visit to Japan in May.
Abe hopes to make progress on the contentious development of undersea gas deposits in the East China Sea and on maritime security. They are also expected to discuss North Korea and the US-China trade disputes.
Abe opened the new parliamentary session after being re-elected last month to head his governing party. Now 64, he has been prime minister since December 2012, and is determined to remain Japan’s leader for three more years.
In his policy speech, Abe also said he wants to close unfinished World War II diplomatic legacies by normalizing ties with North Korea, resolving territorial disputes and signing a peace treaty with Russia.
“Now is the time for Japan to sum up its postwar diplomacy and to build a foundation of peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region during a new era,” he said.
He touched on his foremost ambition of revising Japan’s pacifist constitution drafted by the US after Japan’s World War II defeat, although the hurdles to doing so remain high.
Abe also pledged to accept more foreign workers to tackle a severe labor shortage.
His government is preparing new legislation that would open up more jobs for foreigners in nursing, construction, tourism, housekeeping and other areas.
It is a major shift for a country that has long resisted having more non-Japanese residents.
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