Japan Press Weekly

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2014 November 5 - 11 TOP3 [POLITICS]

Yamashita views Japan-China summit talks as constructive change

Japan’s Prime Minister Abe Shinzo on November 10 held talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing for the first time since he took office in 2012.

The two leaders’ meeting was arranged during the PM’s visit to China for the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation Summit.

Relations between the two nations have been marred by disputes over various issues such as Japan’s nationalization of the Senkaku Islands and the PM’s visit to Yasukuni Shrine. This has delayed a meeting at the summit for about two and a half years.

The two leaders in their talks confirmed that the two governments at the working-level will begin a process of implementing a maritime communication mechanism in order to avert accidental conflicts in the East China Sea.

After the talks, PM Abe told the press corps that Japan and China have marked the first step toward improving bilateral relations by going back to the starting point of building a strategic and mutually beneficial relation.

Later on the same day at a press conference in Tokyo, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Yamashita Yoshiki commented on the bilateral summit and said that resumption of dialogue between the two leaders is a constructive change.


Past related articles:
> JCP Chair Shii comments on Abe’s shrine visit [December 26, 2013]
> Japan to purchase Senkaku Islands [September 6, 2012]