ニュース 2009/03/27 Ozawa receives delegation from Chinese National People's Congress On March 27, DPJ President Ichiro Ozawa met with a delegation from the Chinese National People's Congress, led by Congress Vice Chairman Li Jianguo, and visiting Japan at the invitation of the President of the House of Councillors Satsuki Eda. During the meeting, the two sides reconfirmed their intention to further strengthen and develop friendly and cooperative bilateral relations. The meeting was attended by Diet Affairs Committee Chair Kenji Yamaoka (Secretary General of the DPJ Japan-China Exchange and Discussion Mechanism), Director-General of the Executive Office Tenzo Okumura, member of the House of Representatives Goshi Hosono, and member of the House of Councillors Masamitsu Oishi. After warmly welcoming the Chinese delegation, Ozawa said, "The DPJ would particularly like to further develop friendly and cooperative relations with China." He said that over the course of the long history of friendly relations between the two countries, Japan had learned many things and received a great deal of influence from China, and stated, "I would like to turn this friendly relationship into an even stronger one in future. I hope that you and the members of the delegation will take this opportunity to meet with Japanese from a variety of fields, and that this will contribute to further developing our already strong friendship.” Li thanked Ozawa for his warm welcome, and stated that it was the unchanging policy of the Chinese government to emphasise Japan-China relations, and to further develop a mutual strategic relationship. He went on to refer to the fact that Ozawa had “continued to visit China regularly many times at the head of delegations” and had worked over many years for the sake of the bilateral relationship, and said that Ozawa, through forming bilateral exchange mechanisms such as “The Great Wall of China Project” and the “Japan-China Exchange and Discussion Mechanism” which he agreed to establish in a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao in 2006, “had played an active role in improving and developing Japan-China relations. China values this.” He added, “President Ozawa, you are a man with significant influence in the Japanese political world, and we hope that you will make a further contribution to the development of the [bilateral] relationship.” The topic of discussion moved to a personal grassroots project of Ozawa’s, in which he regularly hosts Chinese university students on visits to Japan. The group of students invited this year had just arrived at Kansai airport, and Ozawa said with a smile, “I will soon have the opportunity to meet them in Tokyo”. He praised the thank you messages he always receives from the students upon their return home, saying, “Not only the Chinese characters, but the hiragana is beautifully written and the content is of extremely high quality. I am always impressed when reading them.” In response to this, Li emphasized the importance of continuing with youth exchange, and commenting that this youth grassroots exchange was “significant”, stressing that the next generation must also work to build friendly relations between Japan and China. Ozawa expressed his agreement with this sentiment. Yamaoka said that under the Japan-China Exchange and Discussion Mechanism it was the turn of the Japanese side to act as hosts, and commented that following the election, the DPJ hoped to invite the Chinese side in their new role as the government of Japan. Li explained that the catchphrase of the Beijing Olympics had been “One world, One dream”, and said, “I hope that your dreams come true.” He encouraged Ozawa and the DPJ, quoting a Chinese proverb: “Heroes are a natural product of their era.”