Relations with Myanmar have remained positive since the change in government and are set to strengthen soon, officials at the Japanese Embassy in Yangon and a nongovernmental organization there say.

With the visit of Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi to Tokyo and Kyoto this week, Ichiro Maruyama, the deputy chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy in Yangon, said he expects political or economic relations to be strengthened.

Speaking in Yangon last week, Maruyama said that ties began improving before Myanmar's historic election on Nov. 8 last year, when Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy sealed its place in government with a landslide victory.