BEIJING - China understands Japanese people's hope for their government to avoid repeating mistakes of their past war time history, a ministry spokesperson said Monday.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang made the remarks while commenting on a question regarding a mass rally in Japan against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's efforts to pass a series of security-related bills.

"We have noticed some recent developments in Japan," Lu said.

The war of aggression waged by the Japanese militarists brought severe calamity to Asian countries, he said. Japanese people had also been victimized by the history.

"We understand the hope of Japanese people and people of conscience for not repeating the mistakes of history, as well as their alert for developments in the military area," said the spokesperson.

About 25,000 protesters surrounded Japan's Diet building Sunday to express their strong opposition against new security bills proposed by Abe. The massive rally came after another held Saturday in Tokyo, in which16,000 demonstrators participated.