Nearly 600 primary school students from China and Japan joined in table tennis games on Thursday, as part of celebration of the 2007 China-Japan Culture and Sports Year.

"China and Japan have witnessed rapid growth in fields of politics, economy, culture and sports since the normalization of bilateral relations in 1972," said Xu Yinsheng, a former world table tennis champion and chairman of the Chinese Table Tennis Association.

The first sports exchange between two countries since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, took place in 1956, when China took part in the 23rd World Table Tennis Championships in Tokyo.

(Xinhua News Agency August 2, 2007)