Japanese Emperor Akihito meets with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo

On June 1, 2010, Japanese Emperor Akihito met with visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

Wen first conveyed President Hu Jintao’s greetings to Emperor Akihito. The Chinese premier said the development of China-Japan relations maintains a good momentum and faces new opportunities. He said his visit to Japan was fruitful and he reached consensus with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on a wide range of issues during their talks. Wen said he also had extensive contacts with Japanese people from various walks of life. Wen said through this visit, he keenly felt both sides could exchange their thoughts, feelings and conscience. Calling this visit a trip of hope and confidence, Wen also said the Chinese government attaches great importance to China-Japan ties and will work with the Japanese side to deepen good-neighborliness and mutual trust, expand pragmatic cooperation and advance the strategic relations of mutual benefit between the two countries.

Emperor Akihito asked Premier Wen to convey his greetings to President Hu Jintao and expressed welcome for Wen’s visit. He recalled his visit to China in 1992, saying that exchanges and contact between the two nations date back to ancient times and the spread of ancient Chinese culture to Japan has exerted profound influence on his country. Monk Jianzhen in the Tang Dynasty braved all the hardships to make his eastward voyages to Japan and his sitting statue is still enshrined and worshipped in Toshodai-ji Temple, Nara. This year marks the 1300th anniversary of Monk Jianzhen’s voyages to Japan and the Japanese side will hold grand celebrations for the event. Emperor Akihito also said expanding people-to-people exchanges can help deepen understanding between the Japanese and Chinese people. During his current visit to Japan, Premier Wen broadly engaged with Japanese people and invited 1,000 Japanese young people to the ongoing Shanghai Expo, said Emperor Akihito, expressing support for these efforts.

Emperor Akihito wished the Expo a complete success and expressed the hope that Japan-China cooperation would be deepened in such areas as culture, energy conservation and environmental protection through the Expo.