Analysis: With eye on 'Quad,' China steps up Japan courtship

Katsuji Nakazawa is a Tokyo-based senior staff writer and editorial writer at Nikkei. He has spent seven years in China as a correspondent and later as China bureau chief. He is the 2014 recipient of the Vaughn-Ueda International Journalist prize for international reporting.

TOKYO -- When the much-anticipated first phone call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and new Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga took place on Friday, the absence of one major issue made the headlines: Xi's visit to Japan as a state guest.