By IRNA,
Berlin : Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda will visit Germany on June 1 for political talks as part of a tour of several European countries, government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm told journalists at a weekly press briefing in Berlin.
Fukuda whose country is the rotating head of the Group of Eight (G 8) leading industrialized countries, will be received with full military honors by Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Talks between the two leaders will focus on a range of bilateral and international issues as well as the upcoming G8 summit on Hokkaido , according to Wilhelm.
After his Germany trip, Fukuda is scheduled to travel to Britain and Italy.
Last August, Merkel visited Japan in a bid to convince Tokyo to step up its campaign against climate change.
For years, Germany and Japan have also been aiming for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council as a result of their mounting global political and economic role.
Japan and Germany are also involved in the NATO-led military mission in war-stricken Afghanistan.
Germany remains Japan’s important trade partner in Europe as the bilateral trade volume stood at 37.2 billion euros last year.
Meanwhile, Japan was the second leading Asian destination for German exports after China.
Some 13.1 billion euros worth of German products were shipped to Japan in 2007.