China is willing to maintain a sound momentum of high-level exchanges with the new Japanese government, said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu Tuesday.

Jiang said that "we have noticed the result of Japan's lower house election. China and Japan are important neighbors and they are also both important countries in Asia."

China is willing to work with the Japanese side to continue to promote bilateral cooperation, continue the sound momentum of high-level exchanges, so as to promote bilateral relations and the peace and development in Asia, Jiang told a routine press conference.

The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) won Sunday's general election by a landslide, sweeping the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) out of almost unbroken power since 1955 to usher in a new era of Japanese politics.

By winning the election, Yukio Hatoyama, 62-year-old head of DPJ and a political blueblood, will become Japan's next prime minister.

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has announced that he will quit as president of the LDP following the defeat in the general election.

(Xinhua News Agency September 2, 2009)