Premier Li Keqiang, accompanied by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, visited a factory for Japanese carmaker Toyota in Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido on May 11.

As one of the world’s top 10 automotive manufacturers and the largest one in Japan, Toyota has made China its third largest market with major competitive products in multifunction travel platforms, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and autonomous vehicles.

The concept of car sharing widely applied by Toyota to transportation, retail, delivery and medical service sectors has benefited not only individuals but also society as a whole, from relieving traffic congestion to addressing environmental pollution, said Premier Li.

When visiting the autonomous vehicle display zone, Premier Li was informed by his Japanese counterpart that Japan has already started to test autonomous driving technology on high-speed railroads with light traffic.

During the visit, the Premier frequently interacted with Toyota’s staff on bottlenecks usually encountered by automotive manufacturers such as R&D concepts, design details and material supplies.

Premier Li also spoke highly of Toyota’s cooperation with Chinese colleges on joint R&D in major high-tech fields, calling for further cooperation in these fields to deliver competitive high-tech products that meet the demands of Chinese and Japanese markets and also third-party markets.

In addition, with consensus reached by both countries on collaboration in innovation, Premier Li urged Japanese enterprises to seize the opportunity for deepening bilateral cooperation to upgrade manufacturing to smart manufacturing, in an effort to achieve win-win outcomes at a higher level.