Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is set to leave today for a one-day trip to China aimed at mending relations that have soured over his controversial visit to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine for Japan's war dead.
The prime minister is scheduled to hold talks with President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji for about an hour each in Beijing after visiting a site linked to Japan's wartime atrocities. He is also scheduled to attend a lunch hosted by Zhu. Also high on Koizumi's agenda is the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. He is expected to explain Japan's plan to dispatch its Self-Defense Forces to provide logistic support to an anticipated U.S.-led antiterrorism operation.
Japan's ties with China deteriorated in the spring over a trade spat over low-priced Chinese imports, a visit to Japan by former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui, and Tokyo's approval of history textbooks that critics say gloss over Japanese wartime atrocities.