Top Chinese legislator meets Japanese lawmakers

Zhang Dejiang (right), chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, meets with Masahiko Komura, vice president of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party and head of the delegation in Beijing, May 5, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

BEIJING -- Top Chinese legislator Zhang Dejiang met with a group of Japanese lawmakers from the Japan-China Friendship Parliamentarians' Union on Tuesday, calling on them to play a bigger role in mending ties.

"China expects Japan to talk and act in a responsible way and properly settle sensitive issues," Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, said at the meeting.

"We expect the Japan-China Friendship Parliamentarians' Union to play a bigger role in improving ties," Zhang told Masahiko Komura, vice president of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party and head of the delegation.

Zhang appealed for stronger communication between legislative bodies and lawmakers so as to improve mutual understanding and expand common ground.

Komura said the Japan-China Friendship Parliamentarians' Union stands ready to make efforts to mend bilateral ties.

The cross-party group's three-day visit to Beijing came two weeks after Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met on the sidelines of the Asian-African Summit in Jakarta.

"President Xi's proposal during the meeting on handling China-Japan relations is of great guiding importance to mend ties, " Zhang said.

He called on both countries to take history as a mirror and look into the future, stick to the direction of peace, friendship and cooperation and to observe the four political documents reached between them in a bid to ensure the steady growth of bilateral relations.

The four documents refer to the China-Japan Joint Statement inked in 1972, the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1978, the China-Japan Joint Declaration of 1998 and a joint statement on advancing strategic and mutually-beneficial relations that was signed in 2008.

Komura and his delegation will conclude their Beijing visit on Wednesday.