Dalai Lama visits Japan to official cold shoulder, Chinese protest

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Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has arrived on his 10th visit to Japan(AFP/File/Prakash Singh)

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Dalai Lama visits Japan to official cold shoulder, Chinese protest

Fri Apr 8, 5:58 AM ET


TOKYO (AFP) - Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama arrived here triggering the latest Chinese protest against Japan, even though officials in Tokyo plan to give him the usual cold shoulder. The Dalai Lama kicked off his 10th visit to largely Buddhist Japan with a visit to a famous shrine and a fresh tribute to late Pope John Paul II, who had repeatedly met the monk in defiance of China which has ruled Tibet since 1951. China said it "has already made serious representations to Japan regarding the Dalai Lama's visit." "We strongly demand Japan to take pragmatic steps to honor its solemn promise on the Tibet issue, to prevent the Dalai Lama from visiting Japan and not to provide a stage for his political activities," a foreign ministry statement said on Friday.

The 69-year-old monk will spend 11 days around Japan in which he will deliver five religious lectures. A Japanese foreign ministry official said the Dalai Lama was considered purely a "private figure." Only one sitting Japanese prime minister has met the Dalai Lama -- Zenko Suzuki in 1980 -- although the monk has regularly met senior leaders of other major industrialized countries, according to the exiled Tibetan leader's office. The visit comes amid rising confrontation between Japan and China over disputed gas reserves and how the two countries remember their World War II history, particularly as Japan aspires to win a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

"It would be an opportunity for Japan to prove itself as an international power if a Japanese leader meets the Dalai Lama," said Tenzin Choeying, an activist with the Free Tibet movement in Dharamsala, India, where the Tibetan leader lives in exile. China on Tuesday summoned the Japanese ambassador to protest Tokyo's approval of a history textbook that downplays Japanese wartime atrocities. Japan responded by urging China not to foment anti-Japanese sentiment. China also protested in December when Japan allowed a "private visit" by Taiwan's former pro-independence president Lee Teng-hui.

The Dalai Lama arrived on a commercial flight to Narita airport outside of Tokyo and was greeted by some 30 supporters including fellow monks. The Nobel Peace laureate paid fresh homage to Pope John Paul II, saying he was "not only a leader of one religion, but a very good human being." "We must carry a message of guidance which he showed us," the Dalai Lama said of the Roman Catholic leader being buried Friday. The Dalai Lama on his visit to Japan will stop in Tokyo, the ancient capital Kyoto, the western province of Kanazawa and the southern island of Kyushu. "The visit is purely religious. His Holiness will be engaged in public talks and teachings," said Tenzin Taklha, the Dalai Lama's secretary. China accuses him of being a separatist seeking to divide the country. The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 amid a failed uprising, denies the Chinese allegations and says he is seeking greater freedom within China.