Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to visit China, possibly in October, to hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping amid efforts to improve bilateral ties.
Tokyo has conveyed to Beijing via diplomatic channels that, should Abe be re-elected in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's leadership race in September, he hopes to make the trip as soon as possible, Japanese government sources said.
The last time a Japanese prime minister made an official visit to China, excluding attendance at an international conference, was in December 2011 by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.
China has already sounded out Japan and South Korea about holding a trilateral summit in December in Beijing, and indicated it would receive Abe for an official visit to China around the time of the envisaged meeting, diplomatic sources said earlier.
Abe had expressed a desire to visit China by the end of the year when he met Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Tokyo on the sidelines of a trilateral summit with South Korea.