TOKYO -- It was a fresh sign of rapidly warming relations when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a surprise appearance at a gala hosted by the Chinese embassy in Tokyo on Sept. 28.
The party was held to celebrate China's Oct. 1 National Day and the 45th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties between the two countries. More than 2,000 guests -- including Foreign Minister Taro Kono and Toshihiro Nikai, the secretary general of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party -- crowded into the Hotel New Otani's banquet hall.
