China and Japan vowed on Saturday to improve relations ahead of a visit by Chinese premier Wen Jiabao to Japan in April. The agreement was the conclusion to a three-day dialogue between the two countries, the latest in a round of talks aimed at mending fences between the major economic powers in the region.
Relations sunk to their lowest ebb in decades recently following visits by former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine. Japanese World War Two leaders convicted as war criminals are honoured at the shrine, alongside millions of war dead, a source of anger in China and parts of Asia where many suffered under Japan's military aggression before and during the war.
"The two sides discussed building strategic, mutually beneficial ties and had frank and in-depth exchanges of views on how to maintain the sound momentum of improving and developing bilateral ties," the official Xinhua news agency said, citing the Chinese foreign ministry.
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