On April 18, 2008, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda met with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in Tokyo.

Yang first delivered a personally-written letter from President Hu Jintao to Fukuda. In the letter, Hu expressed his willingness to deepen and boost the Sino-Japanese mutually beneficial relations based on common strategic interests and to push forward the bilateral ties into the track of long-term healthy and stable development through the visit. Fukuda expressed gratitude for this.

Describing Hu's upcoming tour as of significant importance, Fukuda said the Japanese government and he himself are earnestly expecting the visit. He believed that the visit would improve bilateral ties and cooperation and called on both sides to make the utmost efforts to ensure its success.

Yang said Fukuda's visit to China last year vigorously promoted the improvement and development of the China-Japan relationship, which has now entered an important period and presented favorable developing momentum. The Chinese side attaches great importance to President Hu's upcoming visit to Japan and hopes the visit would score achievements in promoting strategic trust, expanding mutually-beneficial cooperation, improving national sentiment and strengthening international and regional cooperation, Yang said. He noted that China is ready to work with Japan to continue handling bilateral ties from a strategic perspective and strive to deepen and enhance the strategic relations based on mutual benefits, so as to push for long-term sound and stable development of China-Japan relations.

Fukuda wished the Beijing Olympics a complete success and pledged Japan's support for and assistance to the games.

On the morning of the same day, Yang Jiechi met with Japanese House of Representatives Speaker Yohei Kono and House of Councilors President Satsuki Eda respectively. Yang spoke highly of China-Japan relations and highly appreciated the two parliamentary chiefs' continued dedication to the Sino-Japanese friendship and their important contribution to the improvement and development of the bilateral ties.

Kono said the bilateral relationship has gone through difficulties and entered spring. The Japanese side is warmly expecting the visit to Japan by Chinese President Hu Jintao. Better bilateral cooperation to be built up through the visit will be not only beneficial to Japan and China, but Asia and the world at large, he said. The Japanese House of Representatives would like to enrich the regular mechanism of communication with the NPC of China to contribute to the development of bilateral ties, Kono added.

Eda expressed his earnest welcome over Hu's upcoming visit and believed the visit would be a success.

The two speakers said the 2008 Olympic Games is not only an event of Chinese people, but also of Asian people as a whole, and they also extended their good wishes to the Beijing Olympics.

On the same day, Yang also met respectively with Akihiro Ota, head of the New Komeito Party, Mizuho Fukushima, the Social Democratic Party leader, Kazuo Shii, chairman of the Japanese Communist Party (JCP), Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura, Ichiro Ozawa, leader of the Democratic Party of Japan and Bunmei Ibuki, secretary general of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

Yang Jiechi also attended a welcoming reception by seven Japan-China friendship groups.

Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cui Tiankai attended the above-mentioned activities.