Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday stressed the historical and legal significance of the Tokyo Trials, calling on Japan to abandon efforts to remilitarize and whitewash its wartime atrocities.

Speaking at a press briefing marking the 80th anniversary of the opening of the trials, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the tribunal held "great significance both legally and for all humanity."

Zakharova said crimes committed by Japanese militarists during World War II carry no statute of limitations and efforts to investigate and expose those atrocities would continue.

Russia is making every effort to further uncover the crimes of Japanese militarism and will systematically release relevant information, she said.

She slammed wartime Japan for enslaving Asian countries and committing brutal crimes against civilians, while urging Tokyo to learn from history and abandon ongoing attempts at "remilitarization" and historical amnesia regarding wartime crimes.

The remarks come amid growing regional concern over Japan's recent push to expand its military capabilities. In recent years, Japan has sharply increased defense spending, adopted a new national security strategy allowing counterstrike capabilities, eased restrictions on arms exports, and deepened military coordination with the United States and NATO partners. Observers have warned that such moves risk departing from Japan's postwar pacifist trajectory.

The Tokyo Trials, formally known as the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, were held from 1946 to 1948 to prosecute senior Japanese leaders accused of Class-A war crimes following World War II.

Often compared to the Nuremberg Trials in Europe, the tribunal convened more than 800 sessions, heard testimony from over 400 witnesses, reviewed thousands of pieces of evidence, and ultimately convicted 25 defendants. Japan's wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and six others were sentenced to death by hanging.