(Bloomberg) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe praised warming ties with China on Xi Jinping’s first visit to the country in a decade.Xi met Abe shortly after arriving to Osaka on a rainy Thursday, as Asia’s two largest economies seek to preserve economic ties amid trade fights and renewed territorial tensions. He had last come to Japan as vice president in 2009, while the last top Chinese leader to visit was then-President Hu Jintao in 2010.“I want to open up a new age of Japan-China relations hand in hand with President Xi,” Abe told reporters as the leaders met in Osaka on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit. He invited Xi to visit Japan next year “when the cherry trees are in blossom, and raise Japan-China ties to the next level.”While Xi is set for a potentially pivotal meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, he’s poised for a warm welcome from other G-20 leaders. Xi’s meetings with Abe -- including dinner Thursday in Osaka -- mark the latest high point in a yearslong effort to repair relations after an old dispute over East China Sea islands flared in 2012.The visit underscores Abe’s struggle to balance Japan’s reliance on China as its largest export market and the U.S. as its sole treaty ally. Even as the two leaders prepared for the visit, the number of Chinese military and coast guard ships sailing in and around what Japan sees as its territorial waters in the East China Sea reached its highest level in three years.Earlier this month, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono defied China’s warnings against foreign interference in Hong Kong’s protests and said he wanted to see freedom and democracy preserved in the former British colony. In March, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said that Japanese restrictions on the country’s technology could damage bilateral ties.Abe is anxious to maintain a friendly atmosphere by restoring a pattern of mutual visits that ceased after Japan’s purchased some of the disputed East China Sea islands in 2012, prompting protests in China. In October, Abe became the first Japanese prime minister to pay an official visit to China since 2011. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, a top Xi aide, made his first trip to Japan in that role last May.China’s ambassador said earlier this month that Xi could make a more formal state visit next year.Abe might also ask Xi about another milestone trip: the Chinese president’s landmark first visit to North Korea last week. Japan, which has been a frequent target of Kim Jong Un’s nuclear threats over the years, has a floated the possibility of a summit between Abe and the North Korean leader, with little to show for it so far.To contact the reporters on this story: Isabel Reynolds in Tokyo at ireynolds1@bloomberg.net;Emi Nobuhiro in Tokyo at enobuhiro@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Karen LeighFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.