Ren Zhengfei, chief executive and founder of Huawei Technologies Co., is a frequent traveler to Japan who finds Japanese "ramen" noodles hard to resist.

In his first-ever one-on-one interview with Japanese media on Wednesday, Ren said, "I have traveled to Japan so many times. I have been to small and big cities and villages all over the country."

"Japan is the ultimate tourist destination in the world. You can live for a long time in any small mountain village, because this mountain village is very clean and noodles are very delicious -- ramen noodles," he said.

In the interview held in Shenzhen, southern China, where Huawei's headquarters is located, Ren also voiced eagerness to deepen business cooperation with Japanese companies as his firm has been in a tough situation amid a technology dispute with the United States.

"I always have a positive image of Japan," Ren said, adding, "I want to visit Japan again."

Ren was born in 1944 in a rural area in southwestern China's Guizhou Province. After studying civil engineering construction at a university, he entered the Chinese People's Liberation Army in 1974.

He left the army in 1983 and founded Huawei in 1987 with a small amount of capital.

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