During Yingluck Shinawatra's official visit to Japan late last month, Thailand's first female premier did not just exploit her charm to win over Japan, but also dared to talk openly about the most sensitive issue facing her country — the protracted political crisis that followed the 2006 military coup that had overthrown her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, the most successful prime minister in Thai history.
Yingluck held a bilateral talk with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. As expected, Yingluck, accompanied by a large entourage of Thai businessmen, sought deeper economic cooperation with Japan. On top of her agenda, Yingluck attempted hard to raise the confidence of Japanese investors to continue to use Thailand as a production base. Two years ago, devastating floods caused severe damage to Japan's factories mostly located in Thailand's central plain, igniting a crisis of confidence in the Yingluck government.
The Thai premier proposed a strategic economic partnership with Japan, inviting Japanese conglomerates to invest in the Thailand-led development of the Dawei deep seaport and industrial estates in Myanmar, as well as the Thai project on constructing high-speed trains. The Japanese leadership responded to the Thai calls favorably.