A visiting Japanese ruling-party lawmaker stressed Friday the importance of keeping friendly ties with South Korea as the two neighbors have been facing unusually icy relations over historical issues.

“Close neighbors are more important than distant relatives,” Yoshitada Kounoike from the Japan‘s Liberal Democratic Party cited a Japanese proverb in a lunch meeting with South Korean lawmakers held in the local parliament building in Yeouido, western Seoul.

The proverb was picked as Kounoike emphasized the importance of South Korea-Japan relations as the two countries are set to mark the 50th anniversary of normalizing official diplomatic ties in 2015.

Kounoike is visiting South Korea along with three other fellow lawmakers under a next-generation leader exchange program run by the South Korea-Japan cooperation committee, in which politicians, government officials and business leaders from both countries join hands to promote bilateral collaboration mainly in the economic sector.

The four-man team entered South Korea on Thursday and plans to return home on Saturday.

The lawmaker, known to be a close confidant of Japan’s Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, also called for more efforts to improve the frosty relations between the countries.

“I urge (lawmakers here) to give more encouragement to improve the South Korea-Japan relations albeit slightly,” he said.

The reconciliatory tone, however, came a day after Kounoike‘s accusatory remarks during a meeting with the South Korean Assembly speaker drew a wild media backlash. (Yonhap News)