The Japanese government disagrees with views expressed at a gathering held last Sunday by a Japanese group denying the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, Chief Cabinet Secretary Mikio Aoki said Thursday.

"There is no denying that there were killings of civilians and looting after the fall of Nanjing in 1937," the top Japanese government spokesman told a press conference, adding, "The government's position on this matter has not changed at all."

Aoki's remarks came one day after Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan summoned Japanese Ambassador to China Sakutaro Tanino to the Chinese Foreign Ministry and lodged a strong protest against the recent anti-China moves by Japan's right-wing forces.

Tang told the Japanese ambassador that the Chinese government and all the Chinese people are indignant over the anti-China actions taken by the Japanese rightist force to distort history by denying the 1937 Nanjing Massacre and an unjust verdict by the Japanese Supreme Court against an ex-Japanese soldier.

A Japanese right-wing group on January 23 held a gathering in Osaka, western Japan, to openly deny the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed service men were killed.

Before the anti-China rally, the Japanese Supreme Court again rejected the case of Azuma Shiro, an ex-soldier of the Japanese army, who witnessed the massacre and published his diary to expose the truth of the atrocities. (Xinhua)