 "G20")
The first visit to China by a Japanese foreign minister in more than four years is seen as paving the way for a leaders' summit as Asia's two biggest economies seek to reduce tensions over territorial disputes and historical animosities.
Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida is meeting his counterpart Wang Yi Saturday morning in Beijing, before discussions with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. The diplomatic push comes as China prepares to host Group of 20 leaders, including Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, at a get-together in Hangzhou in September, offering the chance for a rare meeting with President Xi Jinping.
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"Both sides want to prepare the ground for a Xi-Abe meeting, which looks positive diplomatically while looking strong politically at home," said Tim Summers, senior consulting fellow on Asia at Chatham House in Hong Kong.
Relations between Xi and Abe remain tense as territorial disputes in key Asian waters and lingering resentment over Japan's wartime past continue to divide the regional powers.
"We believe that a sound and steady development of the China-Japan relationship serves the common interest of the two countries and has a positive meaning to regional peace and stability," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a briefing. "Our relations have shown signs of improvement, yet in the meantime are still facing challenges. We hope Japan can meet China halfway."
Once the dominant military and economic power in the region, Japan has seen its economic muscle eclipsed by China and its military superiority eroded. China remains Japan's biggest trading partner, and the decline in the yen under Abe has attracted flocks of Chinese tourists who have propped up sagging Japanese retail sales.
"China and Japan are important neighbours," Japan's Kishida told reporters as the meeting got underway on Saturday. "I'm very happy that we are able to have this foreign ministers' meeting today. I'm also thankful for China's thoughtful arrangements."
With its growing military and economic clout, China has become more aggressive in challenging the status quo in regional disputes, straining ties. In the East China Sea, where both China and Japan assert sovereignty over a group of uninhabited islets administered by Tokyo, coast-guard ships regularly tail each other, and China has declared an air-defence identification zone to lay claim to the airspace near the islands.
The dispute has triggered violence that has hampered trade. The Japanese government's decision to purchase some of the islands from a private owner in September 2012, ostensibly to prevent a nationalist politician from gaining control, triggered anti-Japanese protests in China.
Xi may also see Japan as a surrogate for the US in any bilateral talks. Japan is the US's biggest military staging ground in Asia, and the country is home to the Seventh Fleet and about 50,000 troops, the US's biggest overseas contingent.
