Japan FM Visits China, Seeking 'Positive Direction' For Ties

Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya visited Beijing on Wednesday, holding several hours of talks with his counterpart Wang Yi and with China's premier, Li Qiang.

Both sides were cautiously welcoming of recent improvements in bilateral relations between the regional rivals with typically complicated relations.

"It is important for both Japan and China to fulfil responsibilities and move forward together in pursuit of the peace and prosperity of this region and the international community," Iwaya said at the start of his meeting with Wang.

China's premier Li Qiang, meanwhile, said bilateral ties were "at a critical period of improvement and development," echoing comments from President Xi Jinping last month amid talks with Japan's new prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba.

Iwaya is the first Japanese minister to visit China since April last year, on the back of the bilateral talks in Peru on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting.

Iwaya voices 'serious concerns' on military activity, detention of Japanese nationals
However, Iwaya had also struck a note of caution prior to his departure, saying "there are various possibilities but also multiple challenges and concerns" in what he said was one of the most important bilateral relationships for Tokyo.

Japan's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday said that Iwaya had "expressed serious concerns over the East China Sea situation, including around the Senkaku Islands [and] China's increasing military activity."

The Senkaku Islands are five uninhabited spits of land in the East China Sea known as the Diaoyu Islands in China, located to the northeast of Taiwan, the east of mainland China, and the west of Japan's Okinawa island.

Japan protested strongly in August when a Chinese military aircraft staged the first confirmed excursion into the country's airspace; it also bristled at a rare Chinese test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean in late September. In October, it sent a warship into the Taiwan Strait for the first time.

More broadly, Japan has also altered a largely pacifist defense policy doctrine set up in the aftermath of defeat in World War II, boosting military spending and moving away from a principle of self-defense.

The government in Tokyo said Iwaya had called for the "swift release" of jailed Japanese nationals, saying "opaqueness surrounding the anti-espionage laws is causing Japanese people to think twice about visiting China."

But the two ministers also agreed to work towards Wang also visiting Japan "at the earliest possible timing next year," and agreed the two governments would hold a bilateral security dialogue in 2025.

Seafood trade restrictions likely up for discussion
The two sides were also expected to discuss Chinese trade restrictions on Japanese seafood, imposed by Beijing amid the release of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea last year.

China, a key export market for Japan, imposed a full ban last August.

Japan argues that the wastewater discharged from the stricken Fukushima plant is adequately monitored, treated, and diluted to levels much safer than international standards. China however has called the water contaminated and called for international sampling and monitoring.

Although progress was not expected on Wednesday, the two countries in September agreed in principle to a path towards normalizing seafood trade again.

The bilateral talks come a few weeks before Donald Trump's inauguration for a second term as US president.