Japanese vessel to pay return visit next week

A Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force (SDF) ship will dock at Zhanjiang in Guangdong province next week to pay a return visit to the Chinese navy, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday.

The reciprocal visits were first proposed eight years ago but deferred because of strained relations during the term of Junichiro Koizumi as Japan's prime minister.

Once bilateral ties began warming up in 2006, China and Japan discussed the topic again, and Chinese navy ship Shenzhen visited Japan in November 2007.