The Tokyo Tower is lit in red as a way to show Japan's support for China's coronavirus battle in Tokyo, Japan, February 18, 2020. Japan's Matsuyama Ballet Troupe also staged show the same night to express their support. (Photo: China News Service/Lv Shaowei)

China has donated a batch of nucleic acid testing kits for the novel coronavirus to Japan, the Chinese Embassy in Japan said Thursday, a move that was applauded by netizens, saying "the two countries are like brothers who set aside their differences."

China is highly concerned about the epidemic in Japan and has expressed sympathy. Once we learned about the shortage of test kits in Japan, China immediately expressed willingness to provide assistance to Japan and took action, the spokesperson of the embassy said. 

China donated a batch of nucleic acid testing kits to the Japanese National Institute of Infectious Diseases through the Shenzhen BGI Genomics Technology Company and Shenzhen Mammoth Public Welfare Foundation.

"The virus has no national borders and needs to be addressed by the international community," the spokesperson said. 

China is willing to continue to provide Japan with assistance within its capabilities, to work together to quickly overcome the epidemic, and to jointly safeguard the health and safety of the two peoples as well as regional and world public health security, the embassy said. 

The move was lauded by Chinese netizens, who said the two countries are like brothers who set aside their historical differences and offered each other support. 

"The epidemic made the two countries know how close they are to each other. The mutual assistance reflects that China and Japan are a community that share the common interests and cannot be cut off," Yang Bojiang, the head of the Institute of Japanese Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times Thursday. 

 Events such as natural disasters and public health crises can often prompt China and Japan to deepen their understanding of how closely connected they are, such as the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008 and tsunami in Japan in 2011, according to Yang. 

Continuous mutual assistance will further boost the positive interaction and emotion between the two countries, Yang said. 

During China's fight against the COVID-19, the Japanese government and society have supported China, which has touched many Chinese people. One batch of aid supplies included 20,000 masks and a number of infrared thermometers donated by the Japanese HSK Bureau to colleges and universities in the central Chinese province of Hubei, whose capital Wuhan is the epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic, Xinhua News Agency reported last Thursday. 

Japanese authorities confirmed 705 cases of the new coronavirus as of Wednesday. 621 cases were found on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship, including 79 new cases confirmed on Wednesday, Japanese media NHK reported. Two passengers from the cruise ship died, bringing the total death toll in Japan to three, the report said.