Osaka businessman Hiroaki Tsukamoto refers to President Xi Jinping as a 30-year friend of the family. The 63-year-old said their dealings have given him deep insight into how Xi has devoted himself to "delivering a better life to people".
日本大阪企业家塚本博亮视习近平主席为相交30年的家族友人。这位63岁的企业家说，通过与习主席相处，他深刻了解到他是如何致力于“为人民谋幸福”的。
"President Xi bridges me and my family with China," he said. "My father introduced him to me, and ever since then, our bond has grown stronger.
他说：“习主席为我们一家搭起了与中国沟通的桥梁。我通过父亲与习主席相识，如今，我们的友谊更加牢固。”
"In my dealings with (Xi), he has always cared more about the overall situation of people, about their welfare, about their happiness and wellbeing."
“通过交往我深知，他时刻心系群众，关心人民的福祉和幸福安康。”
The friendship between the Tsukamoto family, Xi and China goes back to the 1980s, when Tsukamoto's father, Yukishi Tsukamoto, was one of two foreigners who set up a company in Fuzhou, Fujian province, that made mobile homes.
习近平与塚本家族的友谊可以追溯到上世纪80年代，当时，塚本的父亲塚本幸司在福建省福州市与人合伙成立了一家生产移动房屋的公司。
Hiroaki Tsukamoto vividly recalled Xi's first visit to his family in Japan in 1991, when Xi was Party secretary of Fuzhou. "With his charisma, Xi enchanted my family," he said.
塚本博亮清晰地回忆起时任福州市委书记的习近平1991年访问日本时第一次到访他家里的情景。他说：“习主席的个人魅力征服了我们全家人。”
"I guess that even in those early days, the idea of delivering a better life to people and building a society of common prosperity was forming in his mind."
“我认为，早在那时，为人民创造更美好生活，建设一个共同富裕的社会的想法已经在他脑海中形成。”
Tsukamoto's feeling that Xi is devoted to delivering a better life to people was borne out by Xi's only visit to Japan as president while attending the Group of 20 summit in Osaka in 2019.
2019年，习近平赴日本大阪出席二十国集团（G20）领导人第十四次峰会，这是迄今为止他唯一一次以国家主席身份访问日本。这次访问印证了塚本的感受。
In a speech titled "Working Together to Build a High-Quality World Economy" that Xi gave at the summit, he said: "We must keep in mind our shared future. By expanding common interests and taking a long-term view, we can realize enduring peace and prosperity in the world and deliver a better life to all our people."
习近平在峰会上发表题为《携手共进，合力打造高质量世界经济》的讲话，他表示：“我们要立足共同利益，着眼长远发展，致力于实现世界持久和平繁荣、各国人民安居乐业。”
It appears that Xi's concerns for improving people's lives go back even further than Tsukamoto might have imagined.
其实，习近平对为民谋福的关注可能比塚本想象的还要早。
In a speech in June to the High-level Dialogue on Global Development, Xi told of his being a farmer on the Loess Plateau in north-central China.
今年6月，习近平在全球发展高层对话会上发表讲话，他谈到了自己在中国中北部黄土高原当农民的经历。
"In the late 1960s I worked as a farmer in a small village on the Loess Plateau. There I experienced firsthand the hardships in farming and saw how the local people struggled to make ends meet.
“上世纪60年代末，我在中国黄土高原的一个小村庄当农民，切身体会到了百姓的稼穑之难和衣食之苦。”
"Their longing for a better life has stayed in my mind ever since. Half a century later, I revisited the village and found the villagers no longer in want of food or clothing, as evidenced by the smiles on their faces. As an ancient Chinese saying goes, 'only when the granary is full will people learn etiquette; only when people are well-fed and clothed will they know honor and shame.'
“他们对美好生活的渴望深深印在我的脑海里。半个世纪后，我重访故地，看到乡亲们吃穿不愁，衣食无忧，脸上洋溢着幸福的笑容。中国古人说：‘仓廪实而知礼节，衣食足而知荣辱。’”
"Throughout the years I have been to cities, towns and villages across China and visited many countries. One of my deep impressions is that only through continuous development can people's dream for a better life and social stability be realized."
“这些年，我走遍中国城镇乡村，也访问过不少国家。我深深感受到，只有不断发展，才能实现人民对生活安康、社会安宁的梦想。”
Xi's pursuit of delivering a better life to people was also demonstrated in his 2019 visit to Japan when he reached a number of agreements with the Japanese leadership, such as building "a bilateral relationship that fits the needs of the new era", and deepened collaboration in trade, investment, third-party markets and scientific and technological innovation, creating new growth areas for collaboration and leading regional economic integration.
2019年访日期间，习近平与日本领导人达成多项共识，构建“契合新时代要求的中日关系”，深化经贸、投资、第三方市场、科技创新等广泛领域合作，打造新的合作增长点，积极引领区域经济一体化。这也体现出他对为民谋福的追求。
Xi also had emphasized economic ties and people-to-people cultural exchanges when he met with then Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe.
习近平在会见时任日本首相安倍晋三时强调，双方应加强经济联系和人文交流。
"China welcomes Japanese businesses to actively expand cooperation with China and share new opportunities brought by China's development," Xi told Abe, saying that the joint development of the Belt and Road had opened up a vast space for mutually beneficial collaboration between China and Japan, and that China welcomed Japan's participation in the initiative.
习近平表示：“我们欢迎日本企业积极扩大对华合作，分享中国发展新机遇。共建’一带一路’倡议为中日互利合作开辟了广阔天地，欢迎日方积极参与。”
On people-to-people and cultural exchanges, Xi said the two countries should strengthen their ties, enhance youth exchanges and promote mutual understanding and amity between the two peoples.
习近平表示，双方要拉紧人文纽带，加强两国青少年交流，促进两国民众相知相亲。
Since then the China-Japan relationship has endured the test of the COVID-19 pandemic, in which the importance of their intertwined economic ties and mutual cultural resonance became even clearer.
此后，中日关系经受了新冠疫情的考验，更加凸显了双方经济联系和文化交流的重要性。
During the early days of the pandemic, many Chinese were moved by the saying that "even though the landscapes are diverse, we share the wind and moon under the same sky". It was written about 1,300 years ago by a Japanese prince and was quoted by a Japanese organization when it sent masks and infrared thermometers to China.
在疫情初期，日本一家机构向中国捐赠口罩和红外线温度计等物资时引用了“山川异域，风月同天”这个诗句，这句诗感动了很多中国人。
When Japan was later hit hard by the pandemic, the central and local governments of China, as well as Chinese companies and civil society groups, donated more than 9 million masks, 98,000 items of other protective gear and 175,000 medical gloves to Japan in just two months.
随后当日本遭受疫情重创时，中国政府以及企业和民间团体在短短两个月内向日本捐赠了超过900万只口罩、98000件其他防护装备和175000副医用手套。
Japan's Ministry of Finance said that from January to September 2020, in the shadow of the pandemic, Japan's direct investment in China accounted for 26.9 percent of its total foreign direct investment in Asia, compared with 21.8 percent in 2019.
据日本财务省数据，2020年1月至2020年9月，在疫情期间，日本对华直接投资占其对亚洲直接投资总额的26.9%，而2019年为21.8%。
In the first 10 months of 2020, the value of Japan's exports to the world fell 11.8 percent. The value of its exports to the United States fell 19.1 percent, to the European Union by 16.5 percent and to member nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations by 15.3 percent. In the same year, Japan's exports to China plunged between January and April, but rose from May to October, compared with the corresponding period of 2019. Consequently, in the first 10 months of 2020, Japan's exports to China cumulatively rose 3.3 percent, compared with the corresponding period in 2019.
2020年前10个月，日本出口额下降了11.8%，其中对美国出口额下降了19.1%，对欧盟出口额下降了16.5%，对东盟成员国出口额下降了15.3%。同年，日本对华出口额在1月至4月期间大幅下降，但5月至10月对华出口额同比有所回升。因此，2020年前10个月日本对华出口额同比累计增长3.3%。
Three years into the pandemic, the value of trade between China and Japan remains robust, with its total value rising 15.1 percent last year.
疫情暴发三年后，中日贸易额依然强劲，去年中日贸易总额增长15.1%。
The world's largest free trade zone, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which took effect in January and comprises 15 countries including China, Japan and South Korea, has also helped promote economic interdependence between China and Japan.
全球规模最大的自由贸易协定——《区域全面经济伙伴关系协定》于今年1月生效，协定涵盖了中日韩等15个成员国，也有助于加深中日经贸关系依存度。
"Many people say they could not have imagined what China would achieve over the years, but I foresaw it 30 years ago," said Yoshio Tanaka, who also accompanied Xi during his trip to Japan in 1991, and who is a consultant with the Japan-China Friendship Association in Kanagawa prefecture.
田中誉士夫是神奈川县日中友好协会顾问，1991年习近平访问日本期间他曾担任陪同。他表示：“很多人说，他们想象不到这些年来中国能取得什么样的成就，但我在30年前就预见到了。”
Tanaka said that in his dealings with Xi over 30 years, he has found that the Chinese leader is dedicated not only to the well-being of ordinary people but also to people's future, particularly that of young people.
田中誉士夫说，在与习近平结识的30多年里，他发现这位中国领导人不仅致力于造福人民，而且重视人民的未来，特别是年轻人的未来。
"I think that's why China can win the battles to eradicate extreme poverty and build a moderately prosperous society in all respects under his strong leadership," Tanaka said.
田中誉士夫说：“我认为这就是为什么中国能够在习主席的领导下打赢脱贫攻坚战，全面建成小康社会。”
"I can see that from the characteristics of (Communist Party of China) leaders like Xi. He is a real leader, a solid and tough man and a man of his word."
“我可以从习主席这样的（中共）领导人的身上看出原因。他是一位真正的领导人，一个坚毅而信守诺言的人。”
In the 2019 trip, Xi also changed the life of Daichi Nakashima, a prize winner in the Panda Cup Japan Youth Essay Contest, who had written to Xi before the president visited Japan.
在2019年出访日本期间，习近平还改变了中岛大地的人生。中岛是“熊猫杯”全日本青年征文大赛获奖者，他在习主席访日前曾给他写信。
In his letter, Nakashima extended his good wishes to Xi and said he was keen to devote himself to the cause of China-Japan friendship.
在信中，中岛表达了对习主席的美好祝愿，并表示他希望投身于中日友好事业中。
In reply, Xi said he was glad to see Nakashima had been studying Chinese language and literature for a long time and encouraged young people in China and Japan to make contributions to relations between the two countries. Friendship between the two countries is rooted in people, and the future of the friendship lies in the hands of the young, he said.
习近平在给中岛的回信中表示，“得知你长期学习中文并研究中国文学，我感到很高兴”。他还鼓励中日两国青年为开创两国关系更加美好的明天作出积极贡献。习近平表示，中日两国友好的根基在民间，两国人民友好的未来寄望于青年一代。
"When I wrote the letter, I had not expected to receive a reply," Nakashima said. "So when I did I was delighted and honored."
中岛称：“当初写信的时候，完全没想到会收到习近平主席的回信，相当意外也深感荣幸。”
Nakashima said he was greatly encouraged by Xi, adding that he regarded it as his mission to make positive contributions to improving bilateral ties.
中岛说，习主席的回信是对他的鼓励，他把为两国关系作出积极贡献视为自己的使命。
