Ichiro Ozawa, secretary general of the Democratic Party of Japan, held talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing on Thursday and said their meeting "will lead to the development of a friendly relationship between the two countries."
During the meeting, Hu described Ozawa as an old friend of China who has contributed much to bilateral ties.
Ozawa is in Beijing on the first leg of a trip that will also take him to South Korea.
About 140 DPJ lawmakers are accompanying Ozawa on the Beijing leg of the trip, which is part of regular exchanges between the DPJ and the Chinese Communist Party, whose general secretary is Hu.
"It will basically be legislator-to-legislator exchanges and grassroots exchanges," Ozawa said Monday in Tokyo. "I don't intend to discuss issues that the (Japanese) government would take up."
Ozawa is scheduled to travel to Seoul on Friday. He plans to meet South Korean President Lee Myung Bak over dinner on Saturday before returning to Japan on Sunday.
Xi in Japan Monday
BEIJING (Kyodo) China's vice president, Xi Jinping, will head to Japan on Monday for the first leg of a four-nation tour that will also take him to South Korea, Cambodia and Myanmar, China's Foreign Ministry said Thursday.
Xi's trip to Japan will be especially significant as it is the first by a Chinese state leader during the administration of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a regular news briefing.
"We hope that this visit will further strengthen mutual political trust between China and Japan . . . and promote the advancement of strategic and reciprocal China-Japan ties," she said.