China 'positive' on closer Japan ties, Tokyo official says

The national legislature yesterday showed a positive stance towards resuming exchanges with Japan's parliament, despite prolonged soured relations between the two countries, according to a Japanese official.

The willingness to resume dialogue was expressed during a meeting in Beijing between senior National People's Congress officials and a Japanese delegation led by Ichiro Aisawa, a lawmaker in Japan's governing Liberal Democratic Party.

Zhang Ping, the vice-chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, and Cao Weizhou, the deputy secretary general of the committee, did not say when exchanges might restart, Aisawa told reporters after the meeting.

Aisawa, the head of the lower house steering committee, said he told Chinese officials Japan wanted to resume dialogue by the end of the year or by March at the latest. The Chinese officials said they also wanted to resume making contacts between the NPC and Japan's House of Representatives and were prepared to send a delegation to Tokyo at an appropriate time, according to Aisawa.

Exchanges have been stalled since January 2012 as relations between Tokyo and Beijing have been damaged over a territorial dispute in the East China Sea and anger over Japan's alleged lack of atonement for its wartime past.

Japan's parliament and the National People's Congress had organised a meeting almost once a year to discuss regional affairs since 2005.