ISTANBUL 

Tokyo on Tuesday urged “stable” ties with Beijing as a Chinese military delegation paid a rare visit to Japan.

The delegation from Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army will meet Japanese counterparts and senior Japanese defense officials through Friday.

Yoshimasa Hayashi, Japan's top government spokesman, told a news conference that such exchange resumed in five years.

“The promotion of mutual understanding and trust through frank communication at commanders' level will contribute to the building of constructive and stable relations between Japan and China,” he said, according to video record of the news conference.

“We think this visit contributes to the peace and stability of the region,” Hayashi said.

The trip by the Chinese military delegation coincides with a visit to Beijing by lawmakers from Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito who held talks with the officials of the Chinese Communist Party on Tuesday.

They renewed Tokyo’s appeal to China, urging it to lift the ban on seafood imports as the ruling parties resumed their annual dialogue for the first time since 2018.

Beijing imposed a blanket ban on Japanese seafood imports after Tokyo began releasing treated radioactive water into the sea in August 2023.

In September 2024, China said it would “gradually resume” seafood imports from Japan.

This marks the first time since October 2018 that the two sides had a party-to-party dialogue.

Hiroshi Moriyama, the secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party, also called on China to ensure the safety of Japanese nationals residing there.

The Chinese delegation was led by Liu Jianchao, the head of the Chinese Communist Party's International Department.

Dialogue between the ruling parties of China and Japan began in 2006 but was suspended starting in 2018 due to the general deterioration in bilateral relations and partly because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, both countries have recently taken steps to stabilize their ties, with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi expected to visit Japan next month.

Japan’s Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya visited China last month.