Japan and China are making arrangements for President Xi Jinping to visit Tokyo as a state guest next year, rather than this year as initially planned, due to a tight schedule, according to sources familiar with the situation.
During his visit to China last October, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sounded out Xi about the possibility of visiting Japan in June for the Group of 20 summit in Osaka and then in the fall as a state guest, diplomatic sources said earlier.
Xi is scheduled to visit for the G20 summit, but Beijing was reluctant to accept the proposal for him to visit Japan two times in the same year, making a request that Abe visit China instead, according to the sources.