"Ice-thawing Visit":New Opportunities for Closer China-Japan Trade Ties Exclusive Interview with Takeo Donoue,Economic Counsellor of Embassy of Japan in China

At the invitation of the Japanese government, from April 11 to 13, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao paid an official visit to Japan, which was described as an "ice-thawing journey", and launched talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. During the visit, both sides also inked a joint press communique, in which detailed measures to fresh out contents of strategic and mutual beneficial bilateral relationship have been included, marking a historic event of the bilateral relations between the two nations. Wen's successful visit to Japan, which occurred in the year of the 35th anniversary of the normalization of Sino-Japanese relations, received great concerns from the two peoples and the world community and was of far-reaching significance concerning the longstanding friendship between the two peoples and the steady development of China-Japan bilateral relations in both politics and trade. On April 19,China's Foreign Trade had an interview with Takeo Donoue, Counsellor of Embassy of Japan in China, on the discussion of promoting the sound development of Sino-Japanese economic and trade relations on this critical historic moment. Takeo Donoue told us that both the Japanese government and its economic community have been looking forward to faster progress of the economic and trade ties between the two sides.