Japanese business leaders are reportedly pushing to visit Beijing, China, next March and arrange meetings with the Chinese leadership, including President Xi Jinping.

If the visit materializes, high-level economic dialogue between the two countries will resume in about two years.

Kyodo News reported today (October 1) that a delegation consisting of heads of major economic organizations, including the Japan-China Economic Association, Keidanren (Japan Business Federation), and the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is in the final stages of coordinating a schedule to visit China next March.

The delegation is expected to include a large number of executives from major Japanese companies, such as Shindo Kosei, Chairman of the Japan-China Economic Association (Senior Advisor to Nippon Steel); Tsutsui Yoshinobu, Chairman of Keidanren (Special Advisor to Nippon Life Insurance); and Kobayashi Ken, Chairman of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Senior Advisor to Mitsubishi Corporation).

In particular, this will be Chairman Tsutsui's first visit to China since taking office as Keidanren chairman in May 2025.

Initially, the Japanese economic delegation was scheduled to visit China in January of this year, but postponed the schedule after failing to receive a definitive response from the Chinese side regarding its acceptance.

Attention is focused on whether the visit will be successfully realized, as it is being pursued amid continued strained bilateral relations, such as China's backlash against Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's remarks in parliament regarding a "contingency in Taiwan" last November.

Except during the COVID-19 pandemic, visits to China by Japanese economic delegations hosted by the Japan-China Economic Association have taken place almost every year since 1975.

As such, the postponement of the January visit was highly unusual.

A Japanese business source said, "We will carefully gauge the Xi leadership's stance toward Japan while coordinating specific schedules and details."