Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga met visiting Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday at the Prime Minister's Office and conveyed his intention to place emphasis on Japan-China relations.
He also called for China to restrain itself regarding provocations by Chinese government vessels around the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture and expressed concern about the situation in Hong Kong.
It was Suga's first face-to-face meeting with a Chinese dignitary since he took office.
At the beginning of the meeting, Suga welcomed an agreement to restart business travel between the two countries and said, "A stable bilateral relationship is important not only for Japan and China, but also for the region and the international community."
Wang responded, "We would like to cooperate together in various fields."
In this connection, the Chinese government announced Wednesday that it would resume business travel between the countries from Monday.
In the meeting with Wang, Suga called for China's early elimination of restrictions on imports of Japanese food products that were imposed following the 2011 nuclear accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s Fukushima No. 1 plant as well as the resumption of imports of Japanese beef, which have been suspended since 2001 due to an outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
The two also agreed to cooperate for the success of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
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