According to a report by Kyodo News, a group of Japanese parliamentarians met with China’s Ambassador to Japan Wu Jianghao, on a mission to promote friendly relations. The Japanese lawmakers were made up of officials from multiple parties, but were headed up by Yuko Obuchi, a member of Prime Minister Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party. The Dec. 1 meeting was explicitly in regard to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent comments that have inflamed tensions with China.
According to the report, the group told Wu that they hope to visit China later this year, stressing the importance of exchanges between Japanese and Chinese lawmakers to ease the tensions. This kind of dialogue is considered informal or unofficial, but is a way of building trust. Tsutsui Yoshinobu, chairman of the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren), has also requested to send a delegation to visit China. It’s not clear if any of the Japanese representatives apologized or expressed any regret about Takaichi’s comments.
During the Dec. 2 Chinese Foreign Ministry press conference, spokesman Lin Jian said of the diplomatic efforts from Japan: “We noted the reports and also found that many visionary people in Japan are deeply concerned over the negative influence and grave consequences of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s erroneous remarks on Taiwan. The Chinese side urges the Japanese side to do soul-searching, rectify its wrongdoings, retract Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s erroneous remarks, stop harming the sentiments of the two peoples, take practical steps to honor its political commitments to China, and create necessary conditions for the normal exchanges between the two countries. We hope relevant Japanese organizations will play a more positive role in Japan.”
