Japan and China plan to resume an exchange program between young Japanese bureaucrats and aspiring Chinese government officials in 2018 after a more than five-year hiatus, bilateral sources say.
The plan to restart the program involving Japanese bureaucrats from the foreign, economy and agriculture ministries and students from China's elite Central Party School comes as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has shown a desire to improve ties with China, with an eye on President Xi Jinping making a visit to Japan, the sources said Sunday.
But the outlook for Xi's visit is unclear as tensions remain high over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, an islet group long administered by Japan but claimed by China, which calls them Diaoyu, and Taiwan, which calls them Tiaoyutai.