Hu dines on memories, friendship

TOKYO: It's a small, exclusive restaurant in an idyllic park - and rich in the symbolism of Sino-Japanese ties.

It was also an appropriate setting for Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and President Hu Jintao to get to know each other better in an informal atmosphere.

Before their formal meeting today, and a banquet at Fukuda's house tomorrow, the Japanese leader played host to the Chinese president at a venue where his father Takeo Fukuda, Japan's prime minister from 1976 to 1978, got married.