Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida will kick off a three-day visit to Beijing on Friday, which some observers believe is a positive signal for mending Sino-Japanese ties.

Japan and China are the two largest economies in Asia. It is urgent for the two nations to reduce political frictions over sensitive issues like territorial disputes to sustain their economic relationship, especially when the recent boom in foreign travel by Chinese tourists has played a crucial role in supporting Japan's economy.

Japan ranked among the top three tourist destination for Chinese visitors during China's three-day Qingming Festival holiday in April, according to media reports, and the phenomenon of Chinese tourists flocking to Japan to buy products ranging from cameras to toilet seats is likely to repeat in the upcoming May Day holiday starting from Saturday.

This is good news for Japan's economy. Chinese tourists spent 1.4 trillion yen ($12.6 billion) in Japan last year.

There are signs that economic ties between China and Japan are warming up, but they are still fragile as the two countries are trying to cope with difficulties brought by declining bilateral trade.

It seems the time has come for the political elites to consider how to continue the improvement in economic ties, or prevent political frictions from affecting the progress.

We are pleased to see that the two nations are interacting with each other. Ahead of his visit, Kishida delivered a speech on Sino-Japanese ties earlier this week, in which he sent positive messages in terms of strengthening cooperation. His speech was followed by comments from Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying that Sino-Japan ties have shown signs of improvement.

It is hoped that Kishida can extend an olive branch to China during his visit, and China can also make a positive response. Both sides, not just Japan, need to take careful action to create conditions for pushing forward bilateral dialogue.

Some analysts have characterized Sino-Japanese relations as "cold political relations and warm economic ties." But facts have proven that this asymmetry is unsustainable.

A series of political frictions have had a chilling affect on the economic ties in the past years. After the territorial dispute over the Diaoyu Islands in 2012, negative sentiment spread among some Japanese firms as they worried about future of their operations in China, and their businesses shrank during the same period. But a decline in bilateral trade and investment is bound to hurt both China and Japan.

It will be a tough test of both sides' political wisdom to see how the two nations can avoid a situation in which the damage to political relations can also hit economic ties, and Kishida's visit will provide a good opportunity for the two countries to solve such problems. In this regard, China is likely to give a positive response if Japan can show its sincerity during Kishida's visit.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn