Japan's Fukuda: Need to firm up thaw in China ties
679400
Yasuo Fukuda, the frontrunner to succeed Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, said on Sunday it was vital to keep a thaw in ties with China on track but also urged Beijing to better explain its ballooning military spending.
492993
Japan&#39;s ruling party was poised on Sunday  to pick Yasuo Fukuda, who seeks warmer ties with Asian  neighbours, to succeed Shinzo Abe as prime minister in an  effort to revive party fortunes and fill a political vacuum.
621928
Chinese President Hu Jintao held out  hopes for closer ties with Japan, state media reported on  Wednesday, notably underplaying tensions over history and  territorial claims.
432422
China and Japan pledged on Friday to build on their rapidly warming ties, as Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda met the Chinese leadership, but a dispute over maritime gas fields remained unresolved.
509413
Yasuo Fukuda, the front-runner to be Japan&#39;s next prime minister, pledged Sunday to strengthen ties with China and said he would not visit a war shrine seen as a symbol of Tokyo&#39;s wartime past.
681569
Japan grappled Wednesday with the fallout from Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to a Tokyo war shrine, as diplomats reportedly worked to mend frayed ties with China and South Korea.
461451
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda will  make his first visit to China next week in a bid to strengthen  ties, but with a breakthrough in a natural resources dispute  unlikely he could face further trouble back home.
746413
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's efforts to pass a bill to extend a naval mission supporting U.S.-led military operations in Afghanistan hit another snag on Monday after revelations of fresh scandals involving the defense ministry.
487193
QUFU, China  - Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda concluded a feel-good visit to China on Sunday with a stop at the birthplace of Confucius, but the outlook for better relations could be dampened by his dwindling domestic clout.
525284
TOKYO -- Seeking to mend Japan's deteriorating relations with its chief Asian neighbors, Japanese officials on Monday said they were pushing for rapid summit meetings between freshly inaugurated Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his counterparts in China and South Korea.
720738
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao sidestepped Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's invitation Tuesday to visit Japan, a sign ties between Asia's major powers remain bedeviled by a spat rooted in Japan's wartime history
400911
Japan said China apologized on Tuesday  for the intrusion by one of its submarines into Japanese waters  last week in a gesture that defuses a dispute and may open the  way for a bilateral summit this weekend.
329242
The low-key Yasuo Fukuda has promised to bring stability to Japan's tumultuous politics.
330907
Support for Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has dropped more than 10 percentage points to 46 percent, a newspaper poll showed on Monday, a result likely to dampen prospects for an early general election.
406126
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and the  leader of Japan's main opposition party met on Tuesday but  failed to break a stalemate over extending a naval mission  supporting U.S.-led Afghan operations.
578997
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda will make his first visit to China next week in a bid to strengthen ties, but with a breakthrough in a natural resources dispute unlikely, he could land in the hot seat back home.
421432
Japan's new leader Shinzo Abe wants talks with China as early as next month, his foreign minister says.