Chronologies
Japan - China
Chronology from Apr 2009 to Jul 2009
: Japan and China hold their first policy dialogue on resources and the environment in Beijing.
: Former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui warns against China’s political and economic strategies toward Taiwan.
: U.S., Japan, and China announce plans to hold trilateral policy planning talks.
: Tenth Japan-China Strategic Dialogue takes place in Beijing.
: China, Japan, and South Korean Environment Ministers meet in Beijing for 11th tripartite environment talks. They agree to continue joint research on region’s major environment issues, including sandstorms and air pollution.
: UNSC adopts resolution sanctioning North Korea for its May 25 nuclear test.
: Swedish International Peace Research Institute announces that China has become the world’s second leading country in military expenditures.
: PM Aso meets visiting Vice Premier Wang and urges adoption of a strong resolution on North Korea by the UNSC.
: China’s Defense Minister Liang Guanglie tells a visiting Japanese delegation that China’s plans for building an aircraft carrier is “under study.”
: Second Japan-China High Level Economic Dialogue is held in Tokyo.
: FMs Nakasone and Yang meet in Tokyo and discuss sanctions resolution.
: Ambassador Cui meets Democratic Party of Japan President Hatoyama and urges dialogue to resolve North Korean crisis. Hatoyama tells Cui that he will not visit Yasukuni Shrine if he becomes prime minister.
: Ambassador Cui meets with Japanese reporters and urges restraint in Japan’s response to North Korea’s nuclear test.
: FM Nakasone holds 30 minute telephone conversation with FM Yang on sanctions resolution.
: Japan’s Supreme Court rejects a suit brought by 22 Chinese plaintiffs seeking compensation for exposure to chemical weapons abandoned in China by Japan’s Imperial Army.
: FM Nakasone meets Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi in Hanoi and urges adoption of UNSC resolution in response to North Korea’s nuclear test.
: Former PM Abe calls on Aso government to revise its interpretation of Japan’s right to exercise the right of collective self-defense.
: Japanese embassy in Beijing issues “no comment” on reports of ambassador’s relationship with former Xinhua bureau chief. The ambassador follows with his “no comment.”
: Former PM Abe opines that Japan’s prime minister should be able to visit Yasukuni Shrine.
: Japanese media reports sentencing of former Xinhua Foreign Affairs Bureau for passing classified information to a former Japanese ambassador to China.
: Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou announces plan to dedicate a national park to the memory of Japanese hydrological engineer Yada Yoichi.
: Japanese Foreign Ministry announces issuing of individual tourist visas for Chinese citizens will begin July 1. Previously tourist visas were restricted to tourist groups of four or more.
: Saito Masaki, head of Taipei Office of the Japan Interchange Foundation offers his personal view that the international standing of Taiwan remains undetermined.
: Joint Chinese, French, German movie on the Nanjing massacre opens in China.
: PM Aso visits China and meets President Hu and Premier Wen; delivers a speech to meeting of Japan-China Future Business Leaders.
: FM Nakasone raises the issue of Chinese military build-up and modernization during speech in Tokyo on nuclear disarmament.
: A fleet review commemorating 60th anniversary of PLA Navy takes place off Qingdao. Maritime Self-Defense Forces is not invited to participate but sends observers.
: China announces protest of PM Aso’s Yasukuni offering.
: Self-Defense Force Chief of Staff Oriki Hirano announces that Air Self-Defense Force aircraft were scrambled 237 times in 2008 down 70 from the previous year. Scrambles against Chinese aircraft declined to 31 from 43.
: Sixty-one members of the Lower House and 26 members of the Upper House visit Yasukuni Shrine; no members of the Aso Cabinet participate
: Chinese movie Nanjing! Nanjing! opens on 1,400 screens in China.
: Supra-party delegation, led by Yamasaki Taku, visits Chinese embassy in Tokyo to asks for Chinese assistance in bringing North Korea back to the Six-Party Talks
: PM Aso makes an offering at Yasukuni Shrine during Spring Festival.
: Chief Cabinet Secretary Kawamura announces that the government has no plans to accept a proposal for creating a National Cemetery.
: Japan-China Friendship Society announces plan to preserve Silk Road relics in Kansu Province and to cooperate in green environment projects.
: PM Aso meets Premier Wen Jiaobao in Pattaya, Thailand in conjunction with ASEAN-related meetings.
: A history textbook, authored by the nationalist Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, clears government screening.
: Chief Cabinet Secretary Kawamura Takeo acknowledges that Mayor Ohama Nagateru of Ishigaki Island in the Okinawa chain has asked government approval to visit Senkaku Island for property tax purposes.
: Yomiuri Shimbun poll reveals 51.6 percent of respondents favor constitutional revision, up from 42.5 percent in March 2008 survey. Opponents of revision accounted for 36.1 percent, down from 43.1 percent in 2008. Thirty-eight percent favored amending Article 9 of the Constitution, up from 31 percent in 2008.
: Japan and Taiwan announce reciprocal one-year working visas to begin June 1.
: Prime Minister Aso Taro announces up to 2 trillion yen for an Overseas Development Assistance plan to assist recovery of Asian economies.