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To celebrate the 35th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan， the Sino-Japanese friendship-city primary school pupils table tennis tournament， one of the important activities of 2007，the China-Japan Cultural and Sports Exchange Year， jointly sponsored by the China-Japan Friendship Association (CJFA)， the Chinese Table Tennis Association (CTTA)， the Japan-China Friendship Association (JCFA) and the Japanese Table Tennis Association (JTTA)， was held in Beijing from August 2 to 5. Over 600 people from 58 pairs of Sino-Japanese friendship cities took part in the event.

Opening Ceremony and Matches

On the morning of August 2， the team members of the two countries taking part in the tournament gathered at the gymnasium of Shougang (also known as the Capital Iron and Steel Company) Basketball Centre to hold a grand opening ceremony. Song Jian， president of the CJFA， Chen Haosu， CPAFFC president， Xu Yinsheng， president of the CTTA， Liu Deyou， former vice cultural minister， Jing Dunquan， CPAFFC vice president， Koichi Kato， former secretary general of the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party and advisor to the JCFA， Kyuhei Muraoka， director general of the JCFA， Koji Kimura，general director of the JTTA， and Hisashi Michigami， minister of the Japanese Embassy in China， attended the opening ceremony.

Xu Yinsheng， on behalf of the Tournament Organizing Committee on the Chinese side， gave an opening speech. He said， the year 2007 marks the 35th anniversary of the normalization of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations and the China-Japan Cultural and Sports Exchange Year. The Sino-Japanese friendship-city primary school pupils table tennis tournament is one of the important events of the China-Japan Cultural and Sports Exchange Year. The exchanges between China and Japan in table tennis have a good tradition and have played a unique role in promoting exchanges in sports between the two countries and strengthening friendship between the two peoples. Young people are the country’s future and hope. The future of the cause of China-Japan friendship relies on the youngsters of the two countries. Xu hoped that through friendly competitions the children of the two countries would build a bridge for Sino-Japanese friendly exchanges with bats in their hands and convey friendly feelings with the small table tennis balls.

Koichi Kato said， friendly exchanges between Japan and China started as early as more than 2，000 years ago. Japan created its writing by learning from Chinese. However， the development of relations between the two countries will meet some difficulties and setbacks. In recent years， Japan and China have had frictions in the political and economic fields. But， now the relationship has extricated itself from predicament and gained momentum of development. Today I am very happy to see that the children of the two countries dressed in the same sportswear enter the gymnasium hand in hand and jointly strive to win the matches. The friendship between the two countries enhanced through this kind of activities cannot be replaced by anything else and is also the basis for developing bilateral friendly relations.

On August 3 and 4， 232 young players from the 58 pairs of China-Japan friendship cities had intense competitions in a friendly atmosphere at four venues. The matches were so exciting that they won cheers continuously from the spectators. The children players’ excellent skills， high morale and good sportsmanship won praises. Masataka Morizono， a player from Tokyo， who just won the champion of the primary school’s senior grade group of the all-Japan table tennis tournament in July 2007， played very well and only lost one match in the singles and became a little star on and off the competition ground. Su Zheng， a grade-one pupil from Zhuhai was the youngest player in the tournament. Though having a temperature all the time while in Beijing， he still took part in all the matches and achieved a fairly good result. In the end， the Beijing-Tokyo team， the Xi’an-Nara team， the Yantai-Beppu team and the Tangshan-Sakata team won the champion of their respective venue.

Closing Ceremony

On the afternoon of August 5， the closing ceremony of the tournament was held in the Great Hall of the People. Chen Haosu， Xu Yinsheng， Liu Deyou， Jing Dunquan， Kyuhei Muraoka， Koji Kimura， Hisashi Michigami， among other Chinese and Japanese guests， attended the closing ceremony and awarded prizes to the winning teams.

In his speech at the closing ceremony， CPAFFC Vice President Jing Dunquan extended his warm congratulations to the teams that had achieved good results in the tournament. He said， the tournament was held at such commemorative time as the 35th anniversary of the normalization of China-Japan diplomatic relations， the China-Japan Cultural and Sports Exchange Year and the coming Olympic Games. At present Sino-Japanese relations are gaining momentum of development. The two countries are striving to build a strategic relationship of mutual benefit and pushing forward a smooth development of practical cooperation in various fields， among which strengthening exchanges between the young people is one of the main aspects. Having the long-term goal of lasting friendship on our mind， we should strengthen the exchanges between the youngsters with a broad vision and a long-term view and in an effective way so as to inject new vitality into the healthy and stable development of bilateral relations. This tournament has not only shortened the distance within the hearts of the children of the two countries， enhanced mutual understanding and friendship between the children， but also played a role in pushing the local governments and friendship cities to carry out more exchanges between the youngsters.

Kyuhei Muraoka said， the Japanese and Chinese children played the matches hard and forged deep friendship. He hoped that after returning home， the Japanese players would tell their experience to their families， classmates and table tennis friends. He also hoped that the two sides would make joint efforts to run well the Sino-Japanese friendship-city table tennis tournaments which will be held once every five years.

Zhan Ge， a girl player from Xi’an and Masataka Morizono，a boy player from Tokyo， respectively on behalf of the Chinese and Japanese players， spoke on the occasion， expressing their heartfelt wish that the two countries would continue to develop their friendship and march side by side towards a glorious future. Their speeches won warm applause at the ceremony.

Koji Kimura said with emotion， he was gratified to see that with the concerted efforts by both Chinese and Japanese organizers this large-scale event had achieved a full success. The fact that all the players at the tournament are very young can better promote exchanges and friendship between the youngsters of the two countries. They are the basis for continuous development of China-Japan friendly cooperative relations.