Feng Zhenghu, 55, has been staying at Narita International Airport outside Tokyo since Nov. 4 last year after China rejected his reentry and sent him back to Japan.

Feng told a news conference at the airport that he will go through the disembarkation process to enter Japan on Wednesday and plans to stay at the home of a relative in Chiba Prefecture until his departure.

Chinese Embassy staff in Tokyo visited Feng three times last week and told him that China will allow him to return home, Feng told reporters.

He said China has attached no conditions for his return, adding that he will "of course continue" his human rights activities after his return to Shanghai.

Feng, who has relied on gifts from supporters to survive, said he has received much encouragement from people across the world through the Internet during the nearly three months of his stay at the airport.

He offered thanks to people for supporting him, saying this had led China to grant permission for him to return.

He said he thinks Shanghai's city authorities, not the Chinese government, refused his entry to China.

Feng, who headed an economic research institute in China, lost his job after releasing a statement criticizing the Chinese government's crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989. He has since been involved in pro-democracy and human rights activities in China and Japan.

He arrived in Japan in April last year after being detained for 41 days in China.

Feng has attempted to reenter China eight times since June 2009 but has been refused on each occasion. In his last attempt, he left for Shanghai from Narita airport on Nov. 3 but was sent back to Japan the following day.

Since then, he has remained in a restricted area near immigration counters at the airport terminal building.