Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga reacts after being elected as new head of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party at the party's leadership election in Tokyo on Monday. The victory of Suga makes him all but certain to replace Shinzo Abe as the country's next prime minister. Photo: AFP

Chinese netizens began calling for better China-Japan relations after Yoshihide Suga was elected president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on Monday, setting him up to become the next prime minister of Japan.

The hashtag for Suga's win had earned 230 million views on China's twitter-like Sina Weibo as of Tuesday.

Most Chinese netizens are familiar with Suga because he revealed the name of Japan's new imperial era, Reiwa, at a press conference on April 1, 2019. On Monday, many Chinese netizens sent their congratulations to the new LDP head and expressed their hopes that relations between China and Japan can improve under his leadership.

"Suga will be the first new prime minister of the Reiwa era, and compared with Abe, who is from a political family, Suga is the son of a farmer and always followed a people-friendly path. We hope he can make some contributions in promoting relations and financial development between China and Japan," one Chinese netizen wrote on Sina Weibo.

"Shinzo Abe left the new prime minister two big challenges, Japan's 2020 Summer Olympics and the coronavirus pandemic. He might also need to handle some tough tasks after the presidential election in the US this November. Good luck to him," commented another Chinese netizen.