Hu meets leading Japanese lawmakers

TOKYO—Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao met Friday with leading members of Japanese lawmakers’ league supporting the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, which is headed by Yohei Kono, speaker of Japan’s lower house.
Expressing his thanks to the members, President Hu said the Beijing Olympics has got sincere regard and vigorous support from all circles of Japan. At the suggestion of Kono, more than 300 Japanese lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties formed the nonpartisan league to support the Beijing Olympics.
Hu said the move fully displays the Japanese people’s friendly feelings toward the Chinese people as well as their efforts in upholding the Olympic spirit. The Beijing Olympics, which comes 20 years after the 1988 Seoul Olympics, will be the third one held in Asia.
Hu said the Beijing Olympics is a grand event not only for the Chinese people, but for all Asian peoples including the Japanese people, and for the whole world. He said China will honor commitments concerning the Olympics it has made to the international community, adding China, with support from the international Olympic family, will try its utmost to ensure the Games’ success.
China expects continued support for the Olympics from the league and the Japanese people from all walks of life, Hu said. Kono, for his part, said the league consists of members from all Japanese political parties and is the biggest lawmakers’ body in Japan’s Diet. The Beijing Olympics is not only an event for China, but for Asia, he added.
He expressed the hope that China and Japan will take the Olympics as a favorable opportunity to further expand bilateral exchanges in culture, sports and personnel. He also wished the Beijing Olympic Games a great success and promised all-out support for the event.
The lawmakers’ league was set up in 2007, 500 days away from the debut of the Beijing Olympics. The league, which had 225 members in the beginning, now has over 300 members. Leading members are all senior politicians, with Yohei Kono being its chief, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and some other politicians being its deputy chiefs.
President Hu arrived here Tuesday for a state visit, dubbed “warm-spring” trip, the first by a Chinese president to Japan in a decade. Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao met here on Thursday with four former Japanese prime ministers and attended the inauguration of the China-Japan Friendly Exchange Year of Youth in 2008.
While having breakfast with Yasuhiro Nakasone, Toshiki Kaifu, Yoshiro Mori and Shinzo Abe, Hu said the China-Japan relationship is one of the most important bilateral relations for both countries. In the changing world, China and Japan are facing more common issues and responsibilities, and are sharing more common interests and larger room for development, Hu said. The China-Japan relations have exceeded the bilateral domain and are exerting stronger regional and global influence.
“The situation requests the two sides to earnestly think about and map out the future of the China-Japan relations from a strategic and long-term perspective,” Hu said. Nakasone voiced his belief that the two countries’ fourth political document signed Wednesday — the China-Japan joint statement on all-round promotion of strategic and mutually beneficial relations — will lead the bilateral relations to a better future.
Kaifu stressed the importance of candid exchange of views when dealing with problems between the two countries. He called on the two sides to strengthen communication in all fields, especially between young people. Mori expressed his views on the development of Africa and hoped that China and Japan will enhance cooperation to make joint contribution to peace and development of the continent.
Abe said that the exchange of visits by leaders of the two countries is of great importance to the improvement and advancement of bilateral ties and is conducive to the promotion of bilateral strategic and mutually beneficial relations.

—Xinhua