Delivering a speech at the Waseda University, Hu said that standing on the new historic threshold, China-Japan relations are facing new opportunities for further development.

Hu added that the Chinese government and the people sincerely hoped to work with the Japanese side to reinforce mutual trust, enhance friendship, deepen cooperation and plan for the future to usher in a new prospect for the overall development of the China-Japan strategic and mutually beneficial relations.

The Chinese president said that to boost the long-term healthy and stable development of China-Japan relations and to develop the friendship of the two peoples from generation to generation, the two sides should continue to increase mutual understanding.

Hu began a trip to Japan Tuesday, the first-ever visit by China's head of state to the country in a decade.