The No. 2 man in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party voiced support Tuesday for a proposal to invite outgoing Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui to visit Japan.
"We should understand there is such an initiative in the private sector," LDP Secretary General Yoshiro Mori told a press conference.
"He has close ties with Japan as he had studied in Japan in the past," Mori said after a meeting of LDP executives.
Mori quoted some LDP executives as saying during the meeting that Lee should be allowed to visit Japan because he visited his alma mater, Cornell University, in upstate New York in June 1995 in a private capacity.
Lee became the first Taiwanese president ever to set foot in the United States but the visit temporarily strained U.S.-China relations.
Lee studied at Kyoto Imperial University, since renamed Kyoto University. Taiwan was under Japanese colonial rule from 1895 to 1945.
Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara and some LDP members of the House of Councilors are preparing to invite Lee to Japan around June or July, according to political sources.
Ishihara visited Taiwan last autumn and held talks with President Lee.
Lee has expressed a desire to visit Japan after his term of office ends in May, but his plan has offended China, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province. Taipei authorities have taken a cautious stance on the matter.