A Japanese warship will dock in China next week for the first time since World War II on a visit aimed at building on a thaw in relations, Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Tuesday.

The 4,650-ton Sazanami destroyer will leave Japan on Thursday and arrive at a port in Zhanjiang, in the southern province of Guangdong, on June 24, Ishiba told a news conference.

During the five-day stay, the crew of the Sazanami plan to join several friendship events with Chinese counterparts in the city, including a joint concert, a defence ministry official said.

The visit, which was first announced by Beijing on June 3, comes amid improving ties between the Asian giants after a meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Chinese President Hu Jintao in early May in Tokyo.

It will be a return port call by the Japanese side after a Chinese naval ship, the missile destroyer Shenzhen, visited Japan in November for the first time since the People's Republic of China was established in 1949.

In 2002, a planned visit by a Chinese naval ship was cancelled after Japan's then prime minister Junichiro Koizumi visited a controversial war shrine seen by China and other Asian nations as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.