From the Asahi Shimbun today: “Hoping to put the country’s relationship with China back into play and stem growing anti-Japanese sentiment, lawmakers from China and Japan are to don their soccer boots for a friendly match in Beijing next year, sources said over the weekend.
According to the sources, Lower House Speaker Yohei Kono and Wu Bangguo, chairman of China’s National People’s Congress standing committee, agreed to the game when Kono was in Beijing last month.
Officials are hoping the match will aid relations between the two nations that have become strained over the past few years, fueled largely by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s visits to Yasukuni Shrine. ”
