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TOKYO, Dec. 22-- High-level visits and exchanges between Japan and China are of great significance, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, expressing the hope that his upcoming trip to China will serve as an opportunity to further consolidate bilateral relations. In a written interview with Chinese media, the prime minister also said that he looks forward to Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Japan next year. Abe made the remarks ahead of the eighth annual meeting of leaders of China, Japan and South Korea, which will take him to China's southwestern city of Chengdu on Tuesday. Japan and China are neighbors, which share a long history of exchanges and both bear major responsibility for regional and international peace and prosperity, Abe said. He hopes that the upcoming meeting will summarize the trilateral cooperation that has made progress in a wide range of fields so far, and explore how to further deepen trilateral cooperation in areas of common concern, including environmental protection, aging societies and personnel exchanges. The three countries share various issues that are unique to neighboring countries, which is why the three nations should take advantage of this opportunity to conduct candid discussions on issues of common concern, he said. Since the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China, the two countries have been deepening friendly cooperation at the government level, as well as at the people-to-people, local and corporate levels, he said. | 
