China will continue to develop its relations with Japan and hopes the latter will stick to peaceful development, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Monday, after Japan's ruling coalition won an upper house election.
After the election, the coalition, comprising the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito, secured an additional 76 seats for a total of 146, retaining a majority in the 248-member upper chamber of the parliament.
"China hopes to work with Japan to continue to develop bilateral good-neighborliness and friendly cooperation according to the principles stipulated in the four political documents between the two countries," Wang said at a daily news conference.
Sunday's election also saw Japan's pro-constitutional amendment forces, made up of the LDP-Komeito coalition, Japan Innovation Party and the Democratic Party for the People, win more than two-thirds of the seats in the upper house. Sunday's win made it possible for them to initiate the first-ever revision of the country's pacifist Constitution, including amending the war-renouncing Article 9.
The international community and Japan's Asian neighbors pay great attention to the issue of Japan's constitutional revision, Wang said, calling on Japan to "learn from history seriously, stick to peaceful development and earn the trust of its Asian neighbors and the international community with concrete action".
Sunday's election came two days after former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated while giving a speech in the city of Nara.
Vice-Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu visited the Japanese embassy in China on Monday and mourned the death of Abe on behalf of the Chinese government.
