BEIJING - China will present a bronze statue of Sun Yat-sen and his Japanese friends, Mr and Mrs Shokichi Umeya, to Japan's Nagasaki Prefecture.

The State Council's Information Office and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences jointly announced Wednesday that the statue will be transported to Nagasaki, Mr and Mrs Umeya's hometown, in mid-September to commemorate the Japanese couple's great support of China's 1911 Revolution led by Sun Yat-sen.

The gift will also commemorate the Chinese and Japanese forerunners who had made historical contributions to Sino-Japanese friendship, a statement issued by the office said.

Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925) became acquainted with Mr Shokichi Umeya (1868-1934) in Hong Kong in 1895. Umeya provided continuous financial support for the revolution in China that Sun led to overturn the feudal Qing Dynasty.

After Sun's death, Umeya planned to build seven statues of the Chinese revolutionary pioneer. Four of these statues were finished and later presented to China.

"The statue of Sun Yat-sen and his Japanese friends will be not only a return gift for Umeya's statues to China, but also a token of appreciation to the Japanese people who endeavored for China's revolution and the two countries' friendly relations," said Ji Peiding, vice director of the China Human Rights Development Foundation.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the 1911 Revolution, and next year will mark the 40th anniversary of the normalization of democratic relations between China and Japan.

The bronze statue, in equal scale of the figures' actual sizes, is about two meters high together with the base and three meters wide.