Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi to visit Japan next week

Pro-democracy stalwart and Myanmar opposition leaderAung San Suu Kyi is set for a visit to Japan next week, her first in 27 years. She last visited the country in 1985 and 1986 when she was a visiting researcher in Kyoto University. She is set to meet with political leaders, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and to meet with Myanmar citizens living in Japan, as well as give speeches at several universities.

This will be one of her first trips outside of Myanmar after almost two decades of being under house arrest. The recent political reforms to the country has allowed her to visit Thailand and Europe last year, and more importantly, to be allowed to return home. Japan is one of the few countries to not severe ties with Myanmar during the years it was under a military junta. They continued with bilateral ties and offered aid to the country that was ostracized by most of the democratic world because Japan believed that if they cut ties, it would have pushed Myanmar closer to China. During those years, Japan also gently nudged the leaders to listen to the voices of the opposition, as well as the international community. It is these new reforms that led to the freedom of Aung Suu Kyi, who was the voice of the struggle against the military regime.

Now that military rule ended in 2011 and it has started opening itself up to the world, Japan has been more active than ever in bringing businesses to the developing country. It has cancelled almost $3.7 billion in debt and has encouraged other countries to do the same. Suu Kyi’s visit is expected to yield further discussions on the ongoing political reforms in the country, as well as how the two countries can further deepen their ties.

She however caused a bit of controversy with the Japanese community on a recent visit to South Korea. When meeting with Incheon Mayor Song Young-gil, she was asked on her opinion about Japan’s colonial rule of Korea from 1910-1945, she said that Japan needs to make up for its mistakes and acknowledge and make reparations for all its wrongdoings.