Six Cabinet members will visit Beijing to attend a high-level Japan-China economic dialogue in mid April, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned Thursday.
It will be the first time since 2010 that six ministers will participate in the dialogue. By sending so many ministers to China, the Cabinet likely aims to promote the idea that the relationship between Japan and China is improving steadily.
This month's meeting will bring the number of such dialogues, in which ministers from the two nations talk about economic issues, to five. Foreign Minister Taro Kono will serve as the chairperson of the dialogue and five other Cabinet members will attend -- Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko; Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister Keiichi Ishii; Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Takamori Yoshikawa; Environment Minister Yoshiaki Harada; and Regulatory Reform Minister Satsuki Katayama. Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and other members of the Chinese government will also attend.
Six ministerial members from Japan participated in the first dialogue in Beijing in December 2007 and the third in August 2010. However the relationship between Japan and China worsened due to conflict over the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture and the dialogues were paused. Only four ministers, including Kono, attended the fourth dialogue held in Tokyo last April, which was the first in about eight years.
This month's dialogue is expected to include issues such as economic cooperation with other countries and Japan's collaboration over China's Belt and Road initiative. Kono is scheduled to meet with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and they will work on creating an environment for Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit Japan in June.
"By sending ministers in big numbers to Beijing, [the Japanese government] will show the relationship between Japan and China has entered a new stage," a government source said.
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