DPJ President Naoto Kan will meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao on April 16 in Beijing, an executive lawmaker of the party said Tuesday.
The meeting was arranged as China continues to give the cold shoulder to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi over his repeated visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine.
The shrine honors Class-A war criminals alongside Japan's war dead and, to much of Asia, symbolizes Japan's World War II atrocities.
"It will be meaningful to meet the new Chinese leader," the DPJ lawmaker said after party executives met and approved the trip.
On Monday in Beijing, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi met top Chinese officials but failed to make headway in arranging a visit by Koizumi.
Kan had expressed a wish to meet Hu in late April or early May, but China responded that a meeting could be arranged for April 16, the lawmaker said.
Kan's meeting with Hu would coincide with a regular Diet question-and-answer session between Koizumi and political leaders, meaning Kan will miss an opportunity to go face to face with the prime minister.
But the DPJ later managed to get other opposition parties to agree to call for delaying the question-and-answer session until April 23.
The tripartite ruling coalition headed by Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party is expected to accept the postponement.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.