Japan-China Meetings Yield No Breakthroughs on Political Issues, Highlight Difficulty of Resolving Bilateral Concerns

The Yomiuri Shimbun

21:00 JST, March 23, 2025

The Japan-China meetings held in Tokyo on Saturday highlighted once again the difficulty of resolving issues of concern to the two countries, including China’s detention of Japanese nationals and intrusions into Japan’s territorial waters.

Following the Japan-China foreign ministers’ meeting, the Japanese and Chinese governments confirmed during the Japan-China High-Level Economic Dialogue that they would cooperate to resume China’s imports of Japanese seafood.

However, no new prospects emerged on political issues during the talk between the top diplomats. The Japanese government wants to arrange a visit by Chinese Premier Li Qiang to Japan, to coincide with the Japan-China-South Korea trilateral summit in Tokyo, but there is still no sign that the visit will bring about a fundamental improvement in the bilateral relations.

“In addition to discussions on confirming cooperation, we also held frank discussions on resolving challenges and issues,” Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya told reporters after the meetings.

One of the priorities for Japan in these meetings was to urge China to lift its import restrictions as soon as possible. Beijing halted imports of Japanese seafood in response to the discharge of treated water from the disaster-crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, and additional monitoring of the treated water is now being carried out with a view to resuming imports.

The Japanese government said it confirmed during the dialogue that there had been progress in resuming imports but did not specify when they would start up again. Some within the Japanese government expect the resumption to be announced when Li visits Japan.

During the foreign ministers’ meeting, Japan raised issues of concern such as the detention of Japanese nationals by Chinese authorities and the intrusion of Chinese government vessels into territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture. However, there was no positive response from the Chinese side.

China is keen to maintain stable relations with Japan, as its conflict with the United States has been protracted. However, it also appears to be taking advantage of the weakness of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s administration, which keeps stumbling over domestic issues.

The previous Japan-China economic dialogue was held in 2019 with five ministers in attendance from the Chinese government. However, China sent only one minister to the latest dialogue in Tokyo — Wang Yi, foreign minister and a member of the Chinese Communist Party Politburo. Other ministers seemed to have refrained from visiting Japan in order to prioritize domestic duties, since China plans to host an economic forum in Beijing soon.

Japan denies China assertion

Moves that appear mindful of domestic public opinion in China are becoming increasingly evident.

Wang repeatedly referred to the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, demanding reflection on historical issues. The Chinese government issued a factually incorrect statement regarding Friday’s meeting between Ishiba and Wang, claiming that “the prime minister expressed respect for China’s stated position.”

Japan protested and demanded that China retract the statement.

A senior official from Japan’s Foreign Ministry said, “Even if we resolve outstanding issues and challenges, it merely put negatives back to zero.” High-level exchanges between Japan and China are likely to continue seeing fundamental differences in perspective.