BEIJING, May 9 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese defense ministry spokesperson on Saturday urged the Japanese side to demonstrate the courage to face up to history and take real actions to atone for Japan's crimes, slamming Tokyo's renewed push for constitutional revision and military expansion.

"The call of our times is for peace and cooperation rather than war and confrontation," said Jiang Bin, a spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, at a press briefing.

Jiang made the remarks in response to a question regarding Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's recent visits to Australia and Vietnam, during which she touted a so-called updated vision of "a free and open Indo-Pacific" and clamored that Japan's post-war constitution, drafted during U.S. military occupation, should be periodically updated to meet the demands of the times.

Under the pretexts of the so-called "free and open Indo-Pacific" and "security cooperation," governing authorities in Japan are instigating bloc confrontation and building "small circles," Jiang said. "This undermines the strategic security and interests of other countries, and serves as an excuse for Japan to break free from the restrictions on its military development, which we firmly oppose."

May 3, 2026 marks the 80th anniversary of the commencement of the Tokyo Trials. Over the past eight decades, right-wing forces in Japan have spared no effort in downplaying and defying the solemn ruling of the Tokyo Trials that embodies human conscience and historical justice, distorting and denying Japanese militarists' crimes of aggression well-documented in black and white, Jiang noted.

Class-A war criminals, guilty of heinous atrocities, have been glorified as "heroes" and honored at the Yasukuni Shrine, he said. Post-war Japanese governments did promise to uphold the pacifist constitution and pursue the path of a peaceful nation. Later on, they started to pay lip service and take few actions to back up such promise.

"The Sanae Takaichi administration, however, openly pushes for amending Japan's constitution," Jiang said. "This shows that the Japanese right-wing forces are shedding their pretence, and shifting from covert military buildup to overt war preparation, making Japan's 'neo-militarism' a growing and more prominent threat to regional peace."

"We urge the Japanese governing authorities to stop their hypocritical self-glorification and rein in their dangerous ambition of military expansion and war preparation, demonstrate the courage to face up to history, and take real actions to atone for Japan's crimes, so as to earn the trust of its Asian neighbors and the international community," Jiang said.