Wen agrees to visit Japan in April

Premier Wen Jiabao will visit Japan in April, Tokyo officials said Sunday. Wen and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe discussed the timing of what will be the first top-level Chinese trip to Japan since 2000 at the first tripartite meeting between China, Japan and South Korea in two years, Reuters reported. However, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said that Wen told Abe that "appropriately handling historical problems is crucially important to maintaining the healthy, stable development of China-Japan relations". Sino-Japanese ties were strained during the tenure of Abe's predecessor Junichiro Koizumi, who paid visits to the Yasukuni war shrine, which honors war criminals as well as Japan's war dead. If the April trip goes well, Abe could come to China in the second half of 2007.