DALIAN: Visiting Japanese lawmakers said on Saturday they were confident that China-Japan relations would develop further, and sport may have something to do with it.

A soccer team composed of China's top legislature deputies played a friendship game with a team made up of members from the Japanese House of Representatives in Dalian, Liaoning Province on Saturday. The Chinese team plans to play more games with other parliamentary soccer teams to promote a friendly atmosphere for the 2008 Beijing Olympics Games. Center is Lu Yongxiang, vice-chairman of the NPC Standing Committee.  [China Daily]

"Japan and China are partners and our relations are facing good momentum of development and opportunities," Seishiro Eto, a member of the Japanese House of Representatives and former vice-minister of foreign affairs, said.

During this visit to China, Eto also wore another hat: that of captain of the Japanese lawmaker soccer team. On Saturday, the team played a friendly soccer match with Chinese lawmakers in the coastal city of Dalian, Liaoning Province.

The Chinese team has 35 members with an average age of 45. Most are deputies to the National People's Congress (NPC) including government officials, scientists, entrepreneurs, teachers and doctors.

Participants from Japan are 23 lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, its coalition partner the New Komeito Party, the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, the Japanese Communist Party and the People's New Party.

Both sides said "soccer diplomacy" was aimed at deepening friendship. "Ping-pong diplomacy broke the ice in the Sino-US relationship during the early 1970s - and now another sport, soccer, has become a new way to improve Sino-Japanese relations," Lu Yongxiang, vice-chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, said.

Lu said China-Japan ties had entered a new phase after former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe's "ice-breaking" visit to China last October and Premier Wen Jiabao's "ice-thawing" visit to Japan this April.

The game was particularly important as this year marks the 35th anniversary of the normalization of bilateral ties.

He said it was the first time that NPC deputies engaged in a sports exchange with Japan.

There was a push to hold a soccer match among Japanese, Chinese and South Korean lawmakers next year in Japan, as well as form a cheering squad for Japan during the next year's Beijing Olympic Games, he added.

During the friendly soccer match, whenever there was a physical confrontation, players helped each other to get up and shook hands. There was no sign of aggression on the field, only smiles.

At the end of the game, players took photos of each other against the background of a big screen where a message read: "friendship first, competition next".

Both teams were free to change as many as players, and dangerous actions such as slide tackles were forbidden.

"It's indeed an easy and comfortable game," Wang Ning, a NPC deputy and professor at Ocean University of China, said.

Wang said he had been looking forward to the game for a long time, and was very happy to interact with Japanese lawmakers in such a unique way.

Suzuki Tsuneo, a member of the Japanese House of Representatives, said China-Japan ties had witnessed ups and downs, but were now back on track because of extensive efforts by both sides.

"However, I believe that no matter how the bilateral political relationship goes, friendship will last if communication and exchange among the people continue," he said.