BEIJING—Takeshi Iwaya on Dec. 25 became the first Japanese foreign minister in about 20 months to visit China, where he announced eased visa requirements for Chinese travelers and called for high-level dialogue.

In his meetings with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Iwaya also raised the thorny issues of Chinese military maneuvers and Beijing’s Fukushima-related ban on imports of Japanese seafood.

At the foreign ministers’ meeting, Iwaya and Wang, a Politburo member and China’s top diplomat, agreed to make arrangements to have Wang visit Japan at the earliest appropriate time next year.

“China and Japan are neighbors. If China-Japan relations are stable, the Asian region will become more stable,” Wang said at the beginning of the meeting. “When Asia is stable, we will play a more important role in the international community .”

Iwaya replied, “I would like to take the first step toward reducing issues and concerns and increasing cooperation and partnership.”

According to Japan’s Foreign Ministry, the two sides agreed to hold high-level economic talks during Wang’s visit to Japan.

This was Iwaya’s first trip abroad as foreign minister. The last Japanese foreign minister to visit China was Yoshimasa Hayashi in April 2023.

A few months after Hayashi’s trip, China banned all seafood imports from Japan, citing “health risks” related to the release into the ocean of treated water from the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

In his meeting with Wang, Iwaya called on China to lift the ban.

Iwaya also conveyed serious concerns about the Chinese military’s activities in the East China Sea and the Chinese buoys set up around Japan.

The two confirmed the importance of deepening communication on national security matters and agreed to hold a Japan-China security dialogue.

After the meeting, Iwaya attended the Japan-China High-Level People-to-People and Cultural Exchange Dialogue in Beijing, where he announced that Japan would ease visa requirements for Chinese nationals.

He also expressed his intention to expand economic and human exchanges between the two countries.

Iwaya said Japan intends to establish a new tourist visa valid for 10 years for wealthy Chinese citizens, as well as a multiple-entry sightseeing visa that can be used over three years.

The Japanese government will also extend the period of validity of the Chinese group tourist visa from the current 15 days to 30 days, Iwaya said.

In addition, Chinese citizens 65 or older will not be required to submit a certificate of employment or meet other conditions for travel to Japan, he said.

In Tokyo, the Japanese government announced on Dec. 25 that it will waive the application fee of about 3,000 yen ($19) for a single-entry, short-term visa for foreigners who attend the Osaka-Kansai Expo that begins next April.

Chinese nationals are covered in the target group.

The fee will be abolished from Jan. 13 to Oct. 7 next year. The same measure was applied when Japan last hosted the World Expo.

(This article was written by Sotaro Hata, correspondent in Beijing, and Nen Satomi.)