More than 1,000 students from Chinese and Japanese universities gathered at Peking University on Wednesday to attend the Sino-Japanese Youth Exchange to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Peace and Friendship.

Premier Li Keqiang and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent congratulatory letters to the celebration ceremony.

Chen Baosheng, minister of education, said education plays an important role in improving the Sino-Japanese relationship and universities in both countries have achieved great results in personal exchanges and academic and research cooperation.

More than 1 million Chinese students have gone to Japan to study while 240,000 Japanese students have studied in China in the past 40 years, Chen said.

Youth are the future and the hope for a country and they have great responsibility to realize the friendship of the two peoples from generation to generation, he added.

Japanese Education Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said the two countries should strengthen personal exchanges between young people to deepen understanding for each other while sharing the joy of learning together at the same time.

Japanese students could take advantage of this visit to China to develop more contacts and communication with Chinese youth, and work with them to continue expanding the power of Sino-Japanese friendship to create a better future for bilateral relations, he said.

Apart from Beijing, Japanese students also visited Shanghai, Hangzhou and North China's Shanxi province during their stay in China.