Japan and China are making preparations to hold a meeting of their parliamentary exchange commission in Tokyo in April for the first time in about three years, diplomatic sources said.
Before the meeting of the Japan-China Parliamentary Exchange Commission, an official forum for inter-parliamentary exchanges between the House of Representatives and China's National People's Congress, the secretaries-general of Japan's ruling parties — the Liberal Democratic Party's Sadakazu Tanigaki and Komeito's Yoshihisa Inoue — are expected to visit China from March 23 to 25, the sources said Saturday.
These moves suggest progress is being made toward normalizing bilateral parliamentary exchanges after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping finally held their first summit in November, marking a slight thaw in bilateral ties frozen by historical and territorial disputes.
For the meeting in April, senior executives of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's parliament, are expected to visit Tokyo to meet senior officials of the Lower House, possibly including Speaker Nobutaka Machimura.
The Japan-China Parliamentary Exchange Commission had held meetings almost annually since 2005 to discuss political and economic matters, but the exchanges were suspended after the last meeting in Beijing in January 2012.