Analysts: Japan should follow up visit with action

China's chilly relations with Japan won't thaw until Tokyo ceases its provocations on territorial and historical issues, analysts said on Friday as a Japanese Cabinet minister visited China for the first time since Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office in December 2012.

Akihiro Ota, minister of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism, and former head of junior coalition party New Komeito, met Vice-Premier Liu Yandong on Friday.

Liu said China is committed to developing Sino-Japanese ties by drawing lessons from the past and facing the future.