The secretaries-general of the ruling coalition parties said Monday they will make a three-day trip to Beijing next week in support of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's efforts to improve ties with China.
Sadakazu Tanigaki of the Liberal Democratic Party and Yoshihisa Inoue of Komeito are expected to meet with Wang Jiarui, head of the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee, during their visit to Beijing starting next Monday.
"We would like to promote confidence-building between Japan and China," Tanigaki told reporters.
The two sides are expected to agree on the resumption of meetings between members of each country's ruling parties that have been suspended since 2009.
Tanigaki and Inoue are also hoping to meet with one of the seven members of the Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee, China's top decision-making body.
They will try to explain Abe's push for legislation to allow Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense.
Abe's planned statement for the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, to be issued this summer, may also be taken up during the meetings. The statement is expected to be closely scrutinized by China and other Asian countries that suffered under Japan's wartime brutality.