BEIJING - Japan's newly appointed head of Asian affairs left Beijing on Monday after meeting Chinese officials, sending positive messages on deepening China-Japan relations.

The visit came as the Japanese embassy in China made moves to improve its nation's image among Chinese people in an attempt to repair strained Sino-Japanese ties after the Diaoyu Islands boat collision in September.

Shinsuke Sugiyama, director-general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, met with Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun. The two exchanged views on bilateral relations and said that they are both willing to further deepen strategic and mutually beneficial relations.

Zhang said China and Japan should view bilateral ties from a long-term perspective and handle sensitive issues properly to keep relations on a peaceful, friendly and cooperative track.

Next year marks the 40th anniversary of the normalization of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations. Sugiyama said Japan is willing to enhance dialogue and cooperation with China to mark the year.

Sugiyama, concurrently serving as Japan's chief delegate to the Six-Party Talks, had a two-hour meeting on Sunday with his counterpart Wu Dawei, China's special representative for Korean Peninsula affairs.

The two agreed to set the stage for the re-opening of the Six-Party Talks as soon as possible.

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The Japanese delegation also met with Ning Fukui, director-general of the Foreign Ministry's Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs, and Xie Zhenhua, vice-chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, to discuss issues including the stalled bilateral talks on signing a treaty over joint gas field development in the East China Sea.

Sugiyama avoided giving details to the media, according to Japan's Kyodo News Agency, which quoted him as saying the visit was just a greeting after taking office.

Japanese Ambassador Uichiro Niwa recently began accepting more Chinese media interview requests, many more than his predecessor Miyamoto Yuji, who was interviewed three times in three years, according to the record of the official website of the embassy.

"My prior challenge is to promote Sino-Japanese relations. If I can't do that, I'll resign," Niwa said in an interview with the Legal Evening News.

Sino-Japanese relations had been at a low point since a Chinese fishing boat and two Japanese patrol boats collided in waters off China's Diaoyu Islands in September.

A recent poll conducted by Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun and China's Liaowang magazine showed that Chinese people with an unfavorable impression of Japan had reached 78 percent, while Japanese people's impression of China also dropped.

Deng Wei, the spokesman of the Chinese embassy in Japan, said on Jan 26 that he believed the poll's findings were directly due to the collision incident, and that they revealed a lack of mutual trust on political and security issues between the two countries.

"The Chinese embassy will make efforts to improve mutual trust between the two peoples," Deng said.

The Japanese embassy has also started to send newsletters on "Japanese topics" to Chinese reporters, providing information on the latest topics about Japan's diplomatic policies and Japan-China relations.