Xi, who is widely expected to succeed Hu Jintao as China’s president in 2012, is on his first visit to Japan since he took office in March 2008.

In his hour-long meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama after his arrival, Xi thanked Tokyo for “making meticulous arrangements” for his visit.

“I want to further promote development of the strategic, reciprocally beneficial relationship between the two countries during my visit,” he said as the media was allowed to cover the first few minutes of the meeting.

Hatoyama, whose centre-left government took power in September with a promise to seek closer ties with China and Japan’s other Asian neighbours, said he welcomed the visit of a “next-generation leader.” “I greatly hope that Japan-China relations will further develop among young generations as well,” 62-year-old Hatoyama told the Chinese leader.

Xi, 56, was due to meet Akihito at the imperial palace on Tuesday.

Hatoyama’s government has drawn criticism for extending special treatment to Xi by allowing him to meet the emperor despite China having missed the usual deadline for requesting such an audience.

The Imperial Household Agency normally demands that requests by foreign visitors to meet the emperor be filed at least one month in advance, but Xi’s request for an audience was made on November 26.

Japan says the rule for such early notice was put

in place because of

concerns over the health

of Akihito, 75, who underwent an operation for prostate cancer in 2002.

Former prime minister Shinzo Abe, still an influential figure in the opposition conservative Liberal

Democratic Party, lashed out at Hatoyama’s “political use of the emperor” after the government asked the palace last week to bend the usual rules and facilitate the meeting.

“I feel strong resentment,” Abe told reporters. “It’s not too late to

ask the Chinese side to

drop the plan.”

Hatoyama defended himself, saying the meeting “has major meaning

for further progress in Japan-China relations. I don’t think my decision

was wrong.” Under Japan’s post-war constitution,

Akihito and other members of the world’s oldest

monarchy serve a largely ceremonial function and are barred from engagement in political activities.

Many Asian countries still hold bitter memories of the past aggression of Japan under Akihito’s father, the late Emperor Hirohito.

The exceptional move to allow Xi’s meeting with the emperor caused a stir in the Japanese media. Some newspapers said Japan

may have returned a favour for China’s special treatment of a delegation of more than 600 led by the ruling party’s powerful secretary general, Ichiro Ozawa, who was allowed to meet Hu last week.