Tokyo, 22 November, /AJMEDIA/
The leader of the junior partner in Japan’s ruling coalition visited China on Wednesday to urge Beijing to lift its ban on Japanese seafood imports imposed over the ocean release of treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Komeito party chief Natsuo Yamaguchi, who is visiting China for the first time since August 2019, is expected to present a personal letter from Prime Minister Fumio Kishida addressed to Chinese President Xi Jinping during his two-day trip.
Yamaguchi originally intended to visit China in August but postponed the trip due to strained bilateral ties over the discharge of the Fukushima plant’s wastewater, which began late that month. Beijing has been fiercely opposed to the water release.
Arrangements are being made for Yamaguchi to meet senior Chinese officials including Liu Jianchao, head of the Communist Party’s International Liaison Department.
Yamaguchi is also set to call for the resumption of regular dialogue between the Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito coalition and the Communist Party, last held in 2018. He will also propose China lease giant pandas to a Sendai zoo in northeastern Japan.
During a summit held last week in San Francisco, Kishida and Xi agreed to hold expert consultations on the water discharge and build “mutually beneficial” bilateral relations based on common strategic interests.
