Photo/Illutration Toshihiro Nikai, a Lower House member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, serves as chairman of the Japan-China Friendship Parliamentarians’ Union. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Toshihiro Nikai, a veteran politician who has served as a bridge to China, will lead a delegation of lawmakers to Beijing this month seeking to improve strained bilateral relations.

The delegation will visit the Chinese capital on Aug. 27-29, according to an announcement on Aug. 19 by the Japan-China Friendship Parliamentarians’ Union, of which Nikai, former secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, serves as chairman.

The nonpartisan group of lawmakers hopes to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Japan has been calling on China to lift its blanket import ban on Japanese seafood imposed after Tokyo Electric Power Co. began discharging treated radioactive water from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean in August last year.

Tokyo has also been demanding that Beijing resume short-term visa exemptions for Japanese travelers to China, which were suspended in March 2020 during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

A Japanese government source said an in-person meeting with Xi is becoming increasingly important to resolve diplomatic issues because he is consolidating his grip on power within the Communist Party of China.

It will be the first time since May 2019 for the Japan-China Friendship Parliamentarians’ Union to send a delegation to China.

The delegation will consist of about 10 members, including Katsuya Okada, secretary-general of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party, and Yuko Obuchi, chairperson of the LDP’s Election Strategy Committee, according to sources.

Okada is vice chairman of the lawmakers’ group, while Obuchi serves as its secretary-general.

Nikai visited China in 2017 and 2019 as LDP secretary-general and delivered a letter from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Xi.

In March, Nikai said he will not run in the next Lower House election. But he has been exploring the possibility of visiting China.

Bilateral exchanges have gathered momentum in recent months.

Liu Jianchao, who heads the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, visited Japan in May.

In July, Hiroshi Moriyama, chairman of the LDP’s General Council, and Banri Kaieda, vice speaker of the Lower House, traveled to China.

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