BEIJING -- A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tuesday urged Japan to take its neighbors' security concerns seriously and act prudently in military and security fields.

Spokesperson Lu Kang's comments came after some 23,000 people gathered Monday in Tokyo to protest against controversial security laws that were enacted by the Japanese parliament one year ago, marking the country's departure from postwar pacifism.

Lu told a routine press briefing that the voices of the Japanese people, and their message of pacifism, were reasonable and understandable.

Many innocent people in Japan, not just the residents of those nations that Japan invaded, are victims of Japan's war of aggression in last century, according to Lu.

The spokesperson urged Japan to learn from the past, listen to the voices of justice at home and abroad, take its Asian neighbors' security concerns seriously, act prudently in military and security fields and stick to the path of peaceful development.

The Japanese government forcibly enacted controversial security laws last September which, marking a significant overturn of Japan's "purely defensive" defense posture, were met with widespread concern and criticism both at home and abroad.