Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida met Tuesday with Myanmar's state counselor and de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and expressed Tokyo's full support for the country's new administration.
Kishida became the first Japanese Cabinet member to meet the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who also holds the post of foreign minister, since the new administration was launched in the Southeast Asian country in March.
At a joint news conference after the meeting, Kishida said both the public and private sectors of Japan will be fully behind the Myanmar government.
Kishida also requested that Suu Kyi visit Japan soon, repeating the request that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made in his personal letter to her in February.
The government has put priority on strengthening ties with Suu Kyi — who, as president of Myanmar's National League for Democracy ruling party, is the country's most powerful politician — at a time when foreign firms are looking to the largely untapped Southeast Asian market with abundant natural resources.
Kishida was in Myanmar as part of his eight-day tour of Asian nations that has also taken him to China and Thailand so far. He will also visit Laos and Vietnam before returning to Japan.