BEIJING - Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan is considering visiting China next spring in an effort to improve soured bilateral ties, Japanese media reported citing government sources.

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The Kyodo News Agency said on Thursday night that if the visit takes place, Kan hopes to improve the bilateral "strategic and mutually beneficial relationship" between the two nations.

The Japanese government will seek opportunities to create conditions for Kan's visit through all kinds of dialogue, and may send Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara to visit China to pave the way for Kan, Kyodo said.

Several other Japanese media outlets also reported the news. Mainichi Daily News on Friday said that Kan's visit would be an effort to improve bilateral ties that have been soured since the September maritime collision between a Chinese fishing boat and two Japanese patrol boats in waters around China's Diaoyu Islands.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has yet to confirm the visit.

Sino-Japanese relations showed some sign of warming up when President Hu Jintao and Kan met on the sidelines of the 18th Economic Leaders' Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation held in Japan in November.

Kan's visit, if made, will be the first to China by an incumbent Japanese prime minister since Yukio Hatoyama's in October 2009, the newspaper said.

Tokyo hopes Kan's visit to China will come before a regular trilateral summit of the leaders of Japan, China and South Korea to be hosted in Japan possibly by the end of June, which Premier Wen Jiabao is expected to attend, said the newspaper.

Analysts said the visit will only bring Sino-Japanese relations back onto a normal footing.

"It's not practical to expect Sino-Japanese relations to reach a higher level beyond normal country-to-country relations with Kan's cabinet in power," said Zhou Yongsheng, a professor of Japan studies at China Foreign Affairs University.

Zhou noted that Kan's foreign policy priority is the United States, followed by South Korea, and then China.

The Yomiuri Shimbun reported on Friday that the Japanese Defense Ministry will send senior Self-Defense Forces (SDF) officers to study how the US military uses and maintains the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned drone, the newspaper said quoting government sources.

The introduction of unmanned drones would beef up the SDF's ability to monitor China's activities in the seas around southern Japan, as well as the Korean Peninsula, the newspaper said.

Zhou noted that Japan depends economically on China for raw materials and a market, but keeps its distance from China politically and conducts lots of military activities targeting the nation.