Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi will postpone a visit to China that had been arranged for the end of this month due to a schedule conflict on the Chinese side, Foreign Ministry sources said Tuesday.
Hayashi's trip was agreed upon by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese President Xi Jinping when they held their first in-person meeting last month in Bangkok, with the aim of stabilizing bilateral relations that have often been strained over issues including a territorial row.
Tokyo and Beijing had looked to realize the visit in 2022, the year when the two countries marked the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations, but now will rearrange it next year, taking account of political schedules in both nations, according to the sources.