By Chisa Fujioka

TOKYO (Reuters) - Chinese President Hu Jintao's campaign to woo a wary Japan shifts from the summit podium to ballet dancers, university students and perhaps a ping-pong table on Thursday for a day of diplomatic theatre.

In the middle of a five-day state visit, the Chinese leader is seeking to build goodwill after his summit with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, when they agreed to focus on cooperation after years of rancor over Japanese wartime aggression.

Hu and Fukuda said on Wednesday they were on track to settle a volatile feud over undersea gas.

But experts said the main purpose of what is only the second state visit by a Chinese leader was to cement a shift to friendlier ties between the Asian rivals, linked by trade and investment but long divided by rows over a bitter wartime past.

"The fact that the visit is taking place is an achievement," said Andrew Horvat, a professor at Tokyo Keizai University.

"It's a breakthrough, and at the same time it is also the culmination of an incremental process that began when Koizumi stepped down," he said.