A visiting senior Japanese councilor in Tianjin Tuesday praised a senior Chinese citizen for her great contribution to Sino-Japanese relations.

"I am so glad to see you today as I finally fulfilled the wish of my late father," said Tsunoda Giichi, vice president of the House of Councilors of the Diet of Japan, holding tightly the hands of 87-year-old Luo Yun.

"Thank you for your great contribution to the Japan-China friendship," said Tsunoda Giichi, whose father Tsunoda Giheiji was an old friend of Luo.

According to Tsunoda Giichi, his father visited China as chairman of the Japan-China Friendship Association of the Gumma-ken county of Japan in 1960 and witnessed the signing of a joint statement between a Chinese amity group in Tianjin and the Japan-China Friendship Association of the Gumma-ken county of Japan, which initiated the local exchanges of friendship between the two nations.

Luo, then vice chairwoman of the Chinese amity group in Tianjin, heading a delegation, visited Japan in 1964 for a month and built a deep friendship with Tsunoda Giheiji.

"It was respectable of you to head a Chinese delegation to visit Gumma-ken county of Japan more than forty years ago as the two nations had not set up diplomatic ties," said Tsunoda Giichi to Luo, adding "you are one of the forerunners of the Japan-China friendship."

Having suffered from some memory loss in recent years, the 87-year-old Luo, no longer in a sound physical condition, sometimes can't even recognize her grandchildren, said Luo's daughter. "But mom can still clearly remember the Gumma-Ken county, and precisely recognize her Japanese friends on the photos," she said.

"We should carry on the trailblazers' wishes and make continuous efforts to the friendship between Japan and China," said Tsunoda Giichi.

Heading a Japanese delegation, Tsunoda Giichi was invited by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) of China for a good-will visit to China from November 14 to 18.

(Xinhua News Agency November 16, 2005)