(Bloomberg) -- Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is set to make a fresh attempt to shore up fraught ties with China, a day after ally Joe Biden struck a warmer note at his own summit with President Xi Jinping. 

Kishida and Xi will hold their first one-on-one summit in a year Thursday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, the Yomiuri newspaper reported. The meeting would follow months of bickering between the neighbors over everything from semiconductors to nuclear waste and the fate of Japanese citizens detained in China. No official announcement of a summit has been made yet. 

“We will maintain constructive and stable ties through efforts from both sides,” Kishida told reporters in Tokyo before departing for the US, without confirming the meeting would go ahead. While China is Japan’s largest trading partner, Tokyo last year dubbed its neighbor an “unprecedented security challenge” and is planning its biggest military buildup since World War II — which has riled Beijing. 

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Kishida and Xi asserted their desire to improve relations at their first summit, held in Nov. 2022 in Bangkok at last year’s APEC meeting. Since then, Japan has faced Chinese recriminations for following the lead of its ally the US in strengthening the regulation of chip-related exports to China.

Japan and China agreed Wednesday to set up a dialog on export controls, in a bid to avert an escalation of sanctions, the Yomiuri said. 

The Asian neighbors later clashed over Japan’s ocean discharge of wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant. Beijing responded to the disposal — which the International Atomic Energy Agency has said is safe — by slapping a ban on imports of Japanese seafood, hurting local fishing communities. Kishida’s schedule in the US is set to include an appearance at an event promoting Japanese seafood. 

The friction has hurt sales in China for Japanese companies including cosmetics-maker Shiseido Co., which slashed its profit forecast last week. It has also been a factor in turning the Japanese public their most negative on China since 2014, according to a poll published last month. 

For its part, Tokyo has protested Beijing’s treatment of Japanese citizens arrested on allegations of espionage, calling for the individuals to be returned and legal processes made transparent. China has defended its moves as part of the protection of its national security.

One man in his 50s had a 12-year sentence confirmed this month, while an employee of drugmaker Astellas Pharma Inc, also in his 50s, was indicted in October after being detained earlier in the year. Details of the allegations haven’t been made public. 

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