Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Tuesday that Japan needed to develop a stable and amicable relationship with China.

"Already we have gone through several rounds of summit meetings and we are steadfastly moving to further develop a mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests," Abe said at Bloomberg headquarters in New York.

Asked how Japan would deal with China's economic slowdown, Abe said, "The economic relationship between Japan and China is very close in the field of trade and investment. And therefore there is a need, we have to watch very carefully the path of the Chinese economy."

Abe has tried to improve relations with China, but progress has been slow over Japan's failure to atone for its wartime aggression and China's increasingly assertive tone in territorial disputes in the South and East China Seas.

Ties have thawed slightly since Abe and President Xi Jinping met at international gatherings in November and April, but the diplomatic relationship between Asia's biggest economic powers is far from friendly.