(Yicai) Aug. 1 -- Many senior officials from the Japanese government recently visited China and vice versa, indicating that high-level mutual visits between the two countries have begun to be executed, according to an expert.

Japanese officials from the ruling party, the party out of power, and important members of government agencies have visited China over the past several weeks, said Chen Zilei, director of Shanghai University of International Business and Economics's Research Center for Japanese Economy. "The Japanese government's internal and external factors are behind the visits."

Keizo Takemi, minister of Health, Labour, and Welfare of Japan, was the first to visit China from July 17 to 19. Hiroshi Moriyama, chairman of the general council of the Liberal Democratic Party, visited Shanghai, Hunan province, and Beijing between July 19 and 23. Banri Kaieda, the vice speaker of the House of Representatives, also recently came to China with a bipartisan delegation.

China's Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu was invited to a China-Japan Strategic Dialogue with his Japanese counterpart Masataka Okano from July 22 to 23, the first strategic dialogue between the two nations since January 2020, according to China's foreign affairs ministry. Ma also met with Japan's Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa in Tokyo.

Internally, there have been disagreements between Japanese political parties and the government on how to handle relations with China, Chen noted. The recent high-level visits indicate that the strategy of the Liberal Democratic Party and the National Diet toward China has been adjusted in a positive direction after the debates, Chen added.

Regarding external factors, Japan's Liberal Democratic Party presidential election will be held next month, and the United States presidential election will be in November, Chen pointed out. "Before the election, it is necessary to reconfirm the relationship between China and Japan to reduce uncertainty."

Takemi's visit marked the first time Japan's health, labor, and welfare minister visited China since 2018, with Kaieda's visit also being the first by the leadership of the National Diet since that year. In addition, Moriyama noted that he was last in China about six years ago.

A Japanese delegation of economic circles also visited China early this year. Kosei Shindo, chairman of the Japan-China Economic Association, said that his first visit after four years had yielded fruitful results.

Editor: Martin Kadiev