Outgoing Japanese Ambassador to China Masato Kitera, who will soon assume his new post as Japan's top envoy in France, said the diplomat who replaces him should "do different things than me" when asked by China Daily about any advice he would offer his successor.

Kitera made the comment on the sidelines of a reception luncheon at the ambassador's residence on Friday in Beijing.

On March 25, the Japanese ruling cabinet officially appointed Yutaka Yokoi, Japan's representative in Turkey, as the next ambassador to China.

Kitera delivered a farewell speech at the reception and took a retrospective glance on his time in Beijing, from December 2012, a period that saw the China-Japan relationship experience a deep chill.

Kitera graduated from Tokyo University and began to work for the Japanese Foreign Ministry in 1976. He served as assistant chief cabinet secretary in 2011 before his being appointed as ambassador to China.

"A dry and cold wind like that of the Beijing winter was blowing between the two counties," he said as he recalled his days as Japan's top envoy to China.

Kitera said that while there is some way to go "the warm sunshine of spring" is beginning to reach bilateral relations.

"I am very happy, and even appreciative, because I have an opportunity to witness such changes in bilateral relations in the last moments of my term as Japanese Ambassador in China," he added.

Around 5 million Chinese people visited Japan last year and the number of monthly Chinese visitors to Japan has continued to reach record numbers, while the number of Japanese visitors to China shows signs of growing, according to Kitera.