China and Japan should manage their ties properly and make favorable conditions for future high-level exchanges, Vice-President Wang Qishan said when meeting head of the Japanese National Security Secretariat Shigeru Kitamura in Beijing on Friday.

The two countries should follow the consensuses their leaders have reached and usher in a new era for bilateral ties, Wang said.

Kitamura said bilateral ties have been developing in a positive direction since last year, and that Japan hopes to make full preparations for future exchanges between the two countries' leaders.

On the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan, in June, President Xi Jinping agreed in principle to accept Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's invitation for a state visit to Japan in spring next year.

Kitamura, who took office in September, is visiting China from Thursday till Saturday.

On Friday, he held a new round of the China-Japan high-level political dialogue in Beijing together with Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee.

The China-Japan high-level political dialogue was launched in Beijing in 2015 by Yang and Kitamura's predecessor Shotaro Yachi.

At the first dialogue, both sides agreed that the mechanism serves to strengthen high-level strategic communication between the two countries, and helps them build consensuses and manage differences.

Kitamura hails from Japan's National Police Agency. He served as secretary to Abe in 2006, when Abe's first stint as prime minister started.

He was promoted to the post of top intelligence officer in 2011.

Liu Qingbin, a professor at the Institute of Advanced Sciences at Yokohama National University, said Kitamura is one of Abe's longest and closest aides and is now the secretary-general of the National Security Secretariat, which plays a leading role in drawing up Japan's foreign and defense policies.