Tokyo  - Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in Japan Tuesday for a five-day visit to enhance the "strategic and mutually beneficial relationship" between the two countries.

The first Japan visit by a Chinese president in a decade comes as the two nations are trying to improve public sentiment toward each other.

Upon arrival Tuesday, the Chinese president issued a statement saying "the development of long-term stable and good neighbourly friendship between China and Japan is in the fundamental interests of the two countries and the two peoples."

The visit, Hu said, would herald a "warm spring" in relations with Japan, according to Kyodo News Agency.

The bilateral relationship hit a new low in 2005 after Japan's then prime minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honours Japanese war veterans, including war criminals involved in World War II atrocities in China.

But mutual visits by leaders of both nations, which Japan's former prime minister Shinzo Abe initiated in 2006, have helped improve relations.

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Hu were expected on Wednesday to discuss the principles of their countries' bilateral relations and sign a joint statement.

The two nations were also scheduled to sign a joint statement on global warming to meet Japan's proposal to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The statement would mention China's effort to halve carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 as Japan plans to encourage the emerging economy to "more positively respond to and actively participate" in the global challenge against climate change by providing technology and experience in energy efficiency.

Also on the agenda are prolonged disputes over gas and oil rights in adjoining territorial waters as well as a food-poisoning case caused by Chinese-made frozen dumplings. But analysts said these two issues were unlikely to be resolved during Hu's visit.

Meanwhile, some 13,000 protestors, comprised mostly of Tibetan residents of Japan, gathered in Tokyo to urge Beijing to stop its crackdown on Tibetan people and resolve the Tibetan separatism issue peacefully.

Hu, who is in Japan as an invited state guest through Saturday, was also to meet with Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko as well as Japan's political leaders. (dpa)