Japan should stick to the path of peace instead of "trying to reverse the course of history", Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned in a news conference on Wednesday.

This year marks not only the 45th anniversary of normalized relations between China and Japan, but also the 80th anniversary of the Marco Polo Bridge incident, Wang said on the sidelines of the National People's Congress.

"Eighty years ago Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China, inflicting horrendous suffering on the people of China and other Asian countries and pushing itself into the dark abyss," Wang said. "Forty-five years ago Japanese leaders drew the right lesson from history to improve relations with neighbors, thereby realizing fast development at home."

Wang urged Japan to "adopt the right frame of mind, be sensible and come to terms with the fact of China's development and revitalization".

Regarding the leaders' meeting between China, Japan and the Republic of Korea, which was last held in November 2015, Wang said the there is an "enormous need" for the three countries to cooperate, but they should handle properly issues affecting the healthy development of their ties and create the necessary conditions for another leaders' meeting.