Japan’s Nagoya Mayor Ichiro Hirosawa Photo: CCTV
Japan’s Nagoya Mayor Ichiro Hirosawa expressed hope on Monday to resume exchanges with Nanjing, East China’s Jiangsu Province, after official ties were suspended in 2012 following China’s protest against then-mayor Takashi Kawamura’s denial of the Nanjing Massacre, Kyodo News reported.
At the press conference, Hirosawa said, "I hope to resume exchanges at the earliest opportunity and will make a sincere effort to achieve that goal."
Kyodo News, citing sources from the Nagoya city government, reported that senior members of the cross-party group Nagoya City Council League for Promoting Exchanges between Japan-China friendship cities are currently working on the plan and may deliver a handwritten letter from Mayor Hirosawa, expressing his intention to resume exchanges, to Nanjing as early as later this month.
According to China Central Television (CCTV), on February 20, 2012, then-mayor of Nagoya Takashi Kawamura claimed that the Nanjing Massacre had likely never happened. The following day, the Nanjing municipal government announced the suspension of official exchanges with Nagoya.
On February 22, then Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said that China had lodged a formal protest with Japan, expressing serious concern over the mayor’s denial of the Nanjing Massacre. He also voiced support for Nanjing’s decision to suspend official contact with Nagoya.
On the same day, Japan’s then Chief Cabinet Secretary stated that the actions of the Japanese military in Nanjing—including the killing of noncombatants and looting—could not be denied, CCTV reported.
原文地址：http://en.people.cn/n3/2025/0805/c90000-20349444.html