Chinese president meets Japanese emperor

TOKYO, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao met Japanese Emperor Akihito in Tokyo Wednesday.

Before their meeting, the Chinese president attended a welcome ceremony hosted by the emperor.

President Hu arrived in Tokyo Tuesday for a state visit aimed at boosting the strategic and mutually beneficial relations between China and Japan.

Later in the day, President Hu is expected to hold talks with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on Sino-Japanese ties and other issues of common concern.

Hu's visit to Japan, the first by a Chinese president in 10 years, is seen as a step to further improve the once-chilly relationship between the neighbors, which started to warm with former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "ice-breaking" visit to China in October 2006. That event was followed by the "ice-thawing" Japan trip by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao last April and Fukuda's "spring-herald" visit to China last December.

In an interview with Japanese journalists in Beijing on Sunday, President Hu said that his state visit to Japan is a "trip of warm spring" and wished for a "warm spring for the friendship between the two peoples".