The two sides established the military attachi’s office in each other's country in 1974. The bilateral military exchanges started at the end of 70s', and kept growing healthily before 1989. Such exchanges were suspended for some time after 1989. In 1995, the high level military exchanges resumed as Tetsuya Nishimoto, Japanese Chairman of Joint Staff Meeting visited China.

The year 2000 witnessed continuous progress in the bilateral military exchanges. In the first ten-day period of April, Member of the Central Military Commission and Chief of General Staff of PLA Fu Quanyou paid an official good-will visit at invitation. In the last ten-day period of June, Chairman of the Self-Defense Forces Joint Staff Meeting visited China. In the second ten-day period of October, Chairman of General Staff of Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) visited China. In November, General Xiong Guangkai, deputy chief of general staff of the People's Liberation Army, went to Japan to hold the annual defense consultation with Permanent Deputy Director General of the Japanese Defense Agency Ema Seiji.