Shigeru Ishiba is elected as president of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on September 27, 2024. Photo: VCG

After Shigeru Ishiba was elected as president of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and expected to become the new Japanese prime minister, major Japanese media outlets have paid high attention to China's attitude, with questions looming over the future direction of China-Japan relations.

According to NHK on Saturday, Ishiba is expected to become the 102nd Japanese prime minister and launch his cabinet on Tuesday after voting at an extraordinary Diet session.  

In a press coverage on Friday soon after Ishiba's election, NHK listed China's reaction on top of its coverage of global responses.

Kyodo News quoted Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson's response in its news coverage, cited China's Xinhua News Agency's relevant news report, and collected comments on Chinese social media on LDP election, claiming that this demonstrated "significant interest" from the Chinese side in the event. 

The news report attached a screenshot from Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo showing that a topic "Shigeru Ishiba will be the Japanese prime minister" was trending top soon after the election on Friday. 

Asahi Shimbun on Saturday also published a news report titled "How does China view Ishiba?"

At Chinese Foreign Ministry's regular press briefing on Friday, an NHK reporter asked for China's comments on Ishiba's election and China-Japan ties regarding Ishiba's campaign proposals that included the creation of an "Asian NATO."

On Ishiba's election, spokesperson Lin Jian stated that "This is Japan's internal affairs, and we have no comment on that." Meanwhile, Lin noted that China hopes that Japan will learn from history, follow a path of peaceful development, abide by the principles and common understandings established in the four political documents between the two sides, have an objective and right perception of China, take active and rational China policy, take concrete efforts to comprehensively advance the strategic relationship of mutual benefit, and work with China to promote a sustained, sound and steady development of China-Japan relations.

In response to another question from Kyodo News on Ishiba's visit to Taiwan island, Lin reiterated that Taiwan is a province of China. "China is always firmly opposed to Japanese political figures visiting China's Taiwan region. This position is crystal clear," Lin stated.

Those news reports [of Japanese media] evidently reflected that Japan is highly concerned about the direction of China-Japan relations and also wants to test China's attitude toward the new LDP president, Lü Chao, a research fellow on Northeast Asia studies at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Saturday.

"While we certainly oppose Ishiba's previous inappropriate remarks on China-related issues, we expect that, he, as a seasoned politician, could assess the situation wisely, make some shift, and handle bilateral relations with the necessary caution and prudence once he takes office," Lü said.