Japan eyes not sending ministers to Beijing Olympics

Japan is considering not sending Cabinet ministers to next year’s Beijing Olympics in line with a US-led diplomatic boycott amid rising criticism over China’s human rights record, government and ruling coalition sources said Saturday.

Japan’s actions would see its side with the United States, along with countries including Australia, Britain, and Canada, while stopping short of actually being a diplomatic boycott, the sources said.

Various options are being mulled including sending Seiko Hashimoto, president of the organizing committee of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics and a member of the House of Councillors, or Japanese Olympic Committee head Yasuhiro Yamashita, the sources said.

Keeping in mind the positions of the Group of Seven industrialized nations and tensions between China and the United States, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida may decide on the matter before year-end, the sources said.

In a break from other G-7 nations, France has said it will send high-level officials to the Winter Olympics in February. Paris is due to host the Summer Games in 2024. Members of Kishida’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party have been urging him to swiftly make a decision.

He has said Japan will decide whether to join the diplomatic boycott based on its “national interests.” Japan is considering explaining that its stance to send representatives, but not ministers, is not a diplomatic boycott, as it seeks to strike a balance in dealing with the United States, its key security ally, and China, its largest trading partner, according to the sources.

AGENCIES

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES