Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng plans to visit Japan for a World Exposition event in Osaka on July 11, with Japanese lawmakers looking to request a new lease of giant pandas to promote bilateral ties, diplomatic sources said on July 6.

July 11 marks China’s national pavilion day at the expo.

During Mr He’s stay in Japan, he is expected to meet Mr Hiroshi Moriyama, secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, who leads a cross-party group of China-friendly Japanese lawmakers.

Mr Moriyama, a close aide to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, is also likely to call for the resumption of China’s imports of Japanese beef, which have been suspended since 2001 due to an outbreak of mad cow disease.

In contrast, China in June

lifted its ban on Japanese seafood imports

. The restriction was imposed in August 2023 after Japan began releasing treated radioactive wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea.

Mr Moriyama’s request for the panda lease would come as the return of four pandas to China from Wakayama prefecture, western Japan, in June left only two in the country – a pair displayed at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo whose lease contract will expire in February 2026. KYODO NEWS