Japan Lawmakers Meet with Chinese Official in Beijing

Beijing, Sept. 14 (Jiji Press)--A delegation of young Japanese lawmakers from a suprapartisan parliamentary group promoting friendship with China met with a senior Chinese Foreign Ministry official in Beijing on Monday.

After meeting with Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Bin, Masahiro Komura, who leads the delegation, told the press that it was "a big step that we met face to face" amid the cooling of Japan-China relations.

According to Komura, a House of Representatives lawmaker of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, the meeting lasted about two hours in the morning. The Japanese side emphasized the importance of communication and conveyed its concerns about the detention of Japanese nationals.

The Chinese side "reiterated (its views on bilateral relations) in detail," Komura said.

In the afternoon, the Japanese delegation met with Yang Wanming, president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, an organization for private exchanges.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]