December 26, 2007 (LPAC)--On the eve of a four-day visit to China, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda told Chinese media yesterday that the two nations "cannot do without each other," noting that China is Japan's largest trading partner and Japan is the largest investor in China.

Coinciding with Fukuda's planned visit, the Japanese government said it wants to conclude its first nuclear fusion agreement with China, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported today.

Thermonuclear fusion energy, which uses the deuterium in ordinary seawater as its fuel, is the key to continuing world economic growth, as LaRouche has emphasized for the past 30 years. Japan already participates with the United States, the European Union, Russia and other countries, in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project.

Now, Japan wants to increase Asian technical capability to develop fusion. China and Japan will soon add a clause on nuclear fusion research to their existing bilateral agreement on science and technology cooperation. A joint working group of senior scientists and officials will be established, to carry out scientific exchanges, conferences, and other cooperation between the Japan Atomic Energy Agency's JT-60 tokamak nuclear fusion facility in Naka, and China's Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) of the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Anhui Province, China.