A few thousand Myanmar residents in Japan took to the streets Sunday to call on the country where they live to recognize the National Unity Government (NUG), an organization set up in opposition to the Feb. 1 military coup, as Myanmar's legitimate governing body.

In addition to the march in central Tokyo, during which demonstrators chanted for Japan to recognize the NUG and cut ties with the junta, similar events took place in South Korea and Taiwan and were scheduled to be held in the United States, Britain and other European countries in what participants called "Global Myanmar Spring Revolution Day."

Clad in black clothes and wearing black face masks, the participants painted three fingers of both hands in red to symbolize the blood of about 750 peaceful demonstrators and other citizens who have been killed, according to an activist monitoring group, by security forces in Myanmar.