The past 14 months, since former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "ice-breaking" visit to China, have witnessed a turn from long-chilled to warmer ties between China and Japan.

Japan's Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's visit to China, starting from Thursday, is expected to further boost the relations between two of Asia's most important countries.

A Japanese government spokesman said here on Thursday that Japan hopes the visit will "bring spring to Japan-China relations".

Sino-Japanese relations went through a fiver-year impasse over former Japanese PM Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine.

The relations were brought back to the right track when former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe paid an "ice-breaking" visit to China in October 2006. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Japan in April this year went further to "thaw ice" in the relations.

Chronicling Premier Wen's visit, a book titled "Wen Jiabao, Pitcher No. 35", was published this month in Japan, with its cover depicting a smiling bespectacled Chinese premier in baseball suits.

A spate of culture, sports, economic and political exchanges had followed the premier's visit, including a first visit by a Chinese navy ship to Japan since 1949 and a first China-Japan high-level economic dialogue, described by both parties as "very fruitful".

"Prime Minister Fukuda's visit is another high-level trip to wrap up the year 2007, which marked the 35th anniversary of the normalization of Japan-China diplomatic ties," the Japanese spokesman said, declining to be named.

Experts say Fukuda's visit will serve to warm political climate over bilateral relations, and further boost the already close economic ties between the two countries.

Japan is already China's third-largest trade partner and the second-largest source of foreign direct investment. China is Japan's largest trade partner and one of Japan's fastest growing export markets.

In an interview with Chinese media before departure, Fukuda said he wants to take the visit as an opportunity to "raise relations with China to a new level".

"Bilateral ties have become increasingly complementary and one can't do without the other," he said, adding that Japan is ready to promote dialogue and cooperation with China in all areas, including environmental protection and energy.

According to a latest agenda, the 71-year-old premier's four-day trip to China include talks with Chinese leaders, and visits to a Beijing elementary school, a new coastal development zone in Tianjin and the tomb of Confucius in Qufu, east China's Shandong Province.

Analysts say one of the events on Fukuda's agenda -- a live-broadcast speech at the prestigious Peking University -- signals warm and high-profile reception of the Japanese leader extended by China.

"If Abe and Wen's trips were ice-breaking and thawing, Fukuda's trip will serve to 'warm the water'", said Yang Bojiang, director of the Institute of Japanese Studies under the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, extending the metaphor.

"Fukuda's China visit is a heavy-weight chapter in his diplomacy, and it demonstrated strong political will from the Japanese side to advance relationship with China," he said.

Aki Mori, a Japanese student in Beijing-based Renmin University of China, said "the premier chose to make the visit at the dawning of a new year; hopefully the visit will be meaningful for new development in Japan-China relations."

"I hope the premier will leave a good impression on Chinese people, and bring relations between the two peoples even closer," she said.