The Yomiuri Shimbun on January 29, 2018 reported that Japan and China are likely to restart their education and training exchanges for defense officials in September, after a six-year hiatus. It said both governments are making arrangements to resume the exchanges. The move to restart the exchanges comes after the Chinese government softened its stance following improvement in the bilateral relationship. At the Japan-China foreign ministers talks in Beijing on January 28, 2018, Foreign Minister Taro Kono and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, agreed to steadily promote reciprocal visits by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping. It quoted sources as saying the improvement of the bilateral relationship appears to be gaining momentum.

China has lately expressed its intention to send its officials again, as Japan has repeatedly sounded Beijing out on the possibility at meetings among defense officials of the two countries. Japan will make arrangements with China for the dispatch of Chinese trainees to a 10-month program, starting in September, of the National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS), a political think tank of Japan’s Defense Ministry.  

(Comment: Since Japan nationalized the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture in September 2012, the Chinese military has not dispatched its officials as trainees to the Defense Ministry and the Self-Defense Forces.)