Major Japanese media on Thursday responded positively to the 60th anniversary of the founding of New China, lauding the great strides China has made in the past 60 years and acknowledging the continuous improvement of its national strength and international status.

"China has developed into the world's third largest economy following the United States and Japan since it adopted the market economic system 30 years ago, and it is just a matter of time for China to overtake Japan." the Yomiuri Shimbun said in its editorial.

And China is making its presence better felt by the international community by staging major events such as the Olympics and the upcoming 2010 Shanghai Expo, it said.

In a 20-page special report entitled "Chinese economy: A herald to world multipolarization," the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei Shimbun) hailed China's economic development and its contributions to the world economy, saying the Chinese economy enjoys broader scope for future development.

The Tokyo Shimbun said in an editorial that China's economy had expanded 77 folds over the last 60 years and was likely to outstrip Japan this year. And China's foreign exchange reserve ranks first in the world. The great achievements should be attributed to the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

More and more developing countries attempt to follow China's mode of development, and the United States and Europe mired in the ongoing financial crisis are also looking to China's market, it said.

The Sankei Shimbun also praised China's economic growth in its editorial.

China's economic development demonstrates the advantage of the state-dominated economic system against the backdrop of the global recession, it said.

(Xinhua News Agency October 1, 2009)