A Chinese defense spokesman on Saturday urged Japan to demonstrate the courage to acknowledge history and take real actions to atone for its crimes in World War II.

Defense Ministry spokesman Jiang Bin made the remarks at an online news briefing in response to recent actions and comments of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi during her recent visits to Australia and Vietnam.

According to media reports, during her visits, Takaichi touted a so-called updated vision of "a free and open Indo-Pacific" and claimed that Japan's post-war constitution — drafted during United States military occupation — should be periodically updated to meet the demands of the times.

Jiang noted that, under the pretexts of the so-called free and open Indo-Pacific and "security cooperation", ruling authorities in Japan are instigating bloc confrontation and building "small circles".

"This has undermined the strategic security and interests of other countries and served as an excuse for Japan to break free from the restrictions on its military development, which we firmly oppose," he said.

Jiang stressed that May 3 of this year marked 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," he said.

Class-A war criminals, guilty of heinous atrocities, have been glorified as "heroes" and honored at the Yasukuni Shrine, the spokesman said.

Post-war Japanese governments promised to uphold the pacifist constitution and pursue the path of a peaceful nation, however, they then began to merely pay lip service to the idea and take few actions to back up its promise, Jiang said, criticizing the Sanae Takaichi administration for openly pushing to amend Japan's constitution.

"This shows that the Japanese right-wing forces are shedding their pretense and shifting from covert military buildup to overt war preparation, making Japan's neomilitarism a growing and more prominent threat to regional peace," the defense official said.

"The call of our times is for peace and cooperation rather than war and confrontation," he said.

Jiang urged Japanese ruling authorities to stop their hypocritical self-glorification and rein in their dangerous ambition of military expansion and war preparation, demonstrate the courage to own up to their actions, and take steps to atone for Japan's crimes, so as to earn the trust of its Asian neighbors and the international community.