Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit Japan twice this year as Tokyo seeks a further improvement in relations with Beijing through a series of top-level meetings, diplomatic sources said Monday.
During his visit to China last October, Abe sounded out Xi on the possibility of visiting Japan in June for the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, and then in the fall as a state guest, according to the sources with knowledge of ties between the two countries.
If Xi does visit Japan twice this year, it will be the first time a Chinese president has done so since Hu Jintao, Xi's immediate predecessor, did in 2008.