Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda deserves "a high score" for his diplomacy with China, Koichi Kato, the new president of the Japan-China Friendship Association (JCFA), said yesterday.

Relations between Beijing and Tokyo and Japan had hit a low during Junichiro Koizumi's tenure as Japan's prime minister because of his persistent visits to the Yasukuni Shrine that honors Japanese World War II criminals.

Shinzo Abe put the relations on track with his "ice-breaking" visit to China in 2006 immediately after being sworn in as Japan's prime minister.

Bilateral relations were in a mess under Koizumi, but another turnaround was made after Fukuda took office, Kyodo News quoted Kato as saying.

"Fukuda's diplomatic style is not high-profile but it works to solve problems and should be given a high score," Kato said.

Kato is former secretary-general of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party and once served in the Japanese Foreign Ministry's China Affairs Bureau.

He said the development of China-Japan relations was his "lifetime cause" and he would get more Japanese politicians involved in the work.

Japan should increase communication with China under the Six-Party Talks to better address the issue of Japanese nationals allegedly abducted by people from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the 1970s and 1980s.

Because of the abduction issue, Japan has somehow kept itself aloof at the Six-Party Talks, Kato said.

Japan has insisted it will not join other parties in offering aid to the DPRK in exchange for its commitment to abandon its nuclear program.