MOSCOW, December 1. /TASS/. Russia hopes for qualitative progress in relations with Japan, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday in his annual state-of-the-nation address.

"We hope for qualitative progress in relations with our eastern neighbor, Japan," he said, adding he hails "that country’s plans to develop economic relations with Russia, to launch joint projects and programs."

Moscow and Tokyo are now getting prepared for Putin’s visit to Japan which, according to Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov, is due to take place on December 15-16. The president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov told TASS earlier that Moscow hopes to give a fresh impetus to economic contacts with Japan whereas the subject of a peace treaty between the two countries is being worked on by experts.

Economic relations between Russia and Japan have seen considerable enlivening in the recent period. In early November, Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hiroshige Seko, who is in charge of economic relations with Russia, paid a visit to Moscow. During his stay in the Russian capital, he said the two countries had chosen about 30 priority projects for cooperation to be materialized by mid-December.