Trade Minister Takeo Hiranuma on Tuesday called on China to seek common ground on the trade friction that is emerging between the two countries, after Beijing's move last week to slow Japanese imports.
He refused, however, to suggest a correlation between China's move and Japan's recently imposed restrictions on three agricultural products.
"We are not at the stage where we view the (Chinese) action as being linked to our provisional (import curb) measures," the minister of economy, trade and industry told reporters.