Japanese Foreign Minister reaches China for talks on economic issues

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono reached Beijing on Sunday to seek more access to the Chinese market, South China Morning Post reported.

He will hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and urge him to lift the import ban on food from 10 Japanese prefectures that Beijing introduced after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, it said.

"The Chinese side has been more forthcoming and more willing to discuss issues such as intellectual property protection, forced technology transfers and further opening up of the Chinese market," a government source, who did not want to be identified, said.

According to some analysts, Japan is confident about bringing China to the negotiation table after the success of the European Union-China Summit last week.

In a joint press statement, the EU and China agreed that both sides would "establish a political mechanism to continuously monitor the progress in the negotiations and to report to leaders by the end of the year on the progress made".