Japanese PM looks to boost ties through China visit

Yasuo Fukuda's trip follows a series of conciliatory gestures on both sides. Signs of improving relations have been gathering pace, helping to push aside long-standing disputes over territory, wartime history and a regional rivalry.

He will have separate meetings Friday with China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao in Beijing and also travel to Tianjin, Jinan and Qufu before returning to Japan on Sunday.

"I hope this visit can build the foundations for further progress in Japan-China relations," top government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura told reporters. "Japan will cooperate where necessary, but is also prepared to assert its views," he said.

In recent months, a Chinese warship dropped anchor off Tokyo, the first military visit by the communist nation to Japan since World War II. High-level economic talks in Beijing brought together the largest number of Cabinet officials from the two countries since they opened diplomatic ties 35 years ago. And the countries' prime ministers held friendly meetings at a regional summit in Singapore.

Beijing was notably muted in marking the 70th anniversary of Japan's wartime massacre of civilians in the Chinese city of Nanjing earlier this month. Japan's brutal invasion and occupation of much of China in the 1930s and 1940s left behind a legacy of bitterness that Beijing had fanned to cater to nationalist sentiments.

Behind the feel-good atmospherics, however, lies the reality the two Asian giants have plenty of hard work ahead to sort out their troubles, which include Japan's distrust of Chinese military growth and potential economic friction.

China is Japan's No. 1 trade partner; Japan is a top investor in China.

Ties remain shaky amid a slew of contemporary spats. As they scramble to secure energy for their economies, the two countries have competing claims to gas reserves in the East China Sea. Developing those fields is a top priority for Japan, and talks have repeatedly been bogged down - with no breakthrough expected soon.

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