Shinzo Abe will arrive in Beijing today for meetings with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang, in what promises to be a much warmer affair than his last trip to the Chinese capital four years ago.

Mr Abe’s visit is the first formal bilateral visit by a Japanese prime minister to Beijing since a crisis erupted over the Senkaku Islands, known in China as the Diaoyutai, in 2012. Mr Xi did reluctantly receive Mr Abe on the sidelines of an Apec summit in Beijing in November 2014, in an encounter remembered for the two leaders’ downcast faces and reluctant handshake.

This week’s meeting between the two men represents the penultimate stage in Mr Abe’s long quest to normalise relations with China, which would culminate with a return visit to Japan by Mr Xi next year. The Japanese prime minister has been aided by Beijing’s fears of international isolation as the US president, Donald Trump, escalates his trade war, and also its desire to boost Japanese investment as economic growth slows.