At the invitation of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), Oigawa Kazuhiko, Governor of Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, along with Nishino Hajime, Speaker of the Ibaraki Prefectural Assembly, and Kawazu Takashi, President of the Ibaraki Prefecture Japan-China Friendship Association, led a 30-member delegation to visit China from April 15 to 20, 2025.

On April 19, Zhao Gang, Governor of Shaanxi Province, met with the delegation and signed a letter of intent for the development of the sister province/prefecture relations with Governor Oigawa Kazuhiko. Zhao Gang said that Shaanxi is rich in energy, science, education, and cultural tourism resources, and it shares a high degree of relevance and strong complementarity with Ibaraki Prefecture in terms of resources and industries, thus offering broad prospects for cooperation. He hoped that Shaanxi and Ibaraki would take the signing of this letter of intent as an opportunity to continuously enhance the scale, quality, and level of cooperation in fields such as economy and trade, culture, and tourism, contributing to the sound and steady development of China-Japan relations.

Governor Oigawa Kazuhiko praised the achievements Shaanxi has made in its economic and social development and expressed the willingness to continue strengthening practical cooperation with Shaanxi on all fronts, intensifying cultural and people-to-people exchanges, steadily enhancing friendship, and seeking common development.

(Governor Zhao Gang of Shaanxi Province and Governor Oigawa Kazuhiko of Ibaraki Prefecture attend the signing ceremony of the Letter of Intent for the Development of the Sister Province/Prefecture Relations.)

During their stay in Shaanxi, the delegation held a matching meeting between private enterprises from the two places, and visited the Qinling Giant Panda Research Base and the Shaanxi History Museum. Some members of the delegation also visited Beijing, during which they paid courtesy calls to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Asian and African Languages Programming Center under the China Media Group, and the Center for Japanese Studies of Beijing Foreign Studies University.

(The delegation from Ibaraki Prefecture visits the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Asian and African Languages Programming Center under the China Media Group, and the Center for Japanese Studies of Beijing Foreign Studies University in Beijing.)