Japan's new PM gives encouraging signs on ties with China despite disputes

BEIJING, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Japan's new Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda recently made some positive statements on Japan's future relationship with all Asian neighbors including China. Yet to improve China-Japan ties, the two nations still need to handle their remaining disputes properly.

Noda told a press conference Tuesday that he expects to "maintain a win-win relationship with Asian countries including China and South Korea," saying he will not visit the Yasukuni Shrine during his premiership.

Owning to adversities from the global financial crisis and the triple blow of a massive earthquake, a tsunami and nuclear radiation leaks, the nation's economy is still facing a bevy of grave challenges.

China's fast economic growth, despite a sluggish global recovery, has offered plenty of business and investment opportunities for Japan, of which China is the largest trading partner.

China and Japan, two major players in the Asia-Pacific region, can also gain substantively by working together to address a number of regional or global challenges like the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and climate change.

Yet it has to be acknowledged that a strong cooperative relationship needs to be built not only on flourishing trade links but also on their mutual respect for maritime sovereignty and core interests.

It is widely known that before his election as prime minister, Noda had made some controversial comments on Japan's wartime past, and China's sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands.