From October 30 to November 3, 2025, at the invitation of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), Toshiko Abe, Member of the House of Representatives of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and former Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, led a six-member delegation on a visit to Shanghai and Zhejiang. During their stay, Sha Hailin, President of the Shanghai Public Relations Association, and Guo Weihong, Full-time Vice President of the Hangzhou People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, met with Abe and her delegation separately.
During the visit, the delegation toured enterprises in intangible cultural heritage (ICH) innovation, the Xiling Seal Society, and the Hangzhou International Buddhist Cultural Exchange Center and Chaoyin Zen Temple, gaining first-hand understanding of China's cultural industry development and the exchange and cooperation between China and Japan in the cultural field. They visited several Japanese companies operating locally — HORIBA China, AEON MALL (Hangzhou Qiantang store) and the Fujiya (Hangzhou) food factory—to learn about the business environment and development of Japanese enterprises in China. Furthermore, they visited Japanese schools in Shanghai and Hangzhou, and held discussions with Japanese students studying in China, encouraging and supporting Japanese youth to strive to become bridges for friendly exchanges between the two countries.
Abe expressed her gratitude for the warm hospitality from the Chinese side, saying that through this visit she felt China's vigorous economic and social development as well as its profound traditional culture. She thanked the Chinese side for their assistance and support to Japanese companies, schools, and students in China. She expressed her decision to share the outcomes of the visit after returning to Japan, and her readiness to contribute to the promotion of subnational friendly exchanges, practical cooperation between the two countries, and the improvement and development of Japan-China relations.
