Continuing pressure and persuasion made by Government of Japan to Burmese military junta towards this end are greatly appreciated by the Burmese people. In closing, I thank you and Government of Japan for your continuing efforts for peace and reconciliation in Burma. It becomes increasingly evident that certain elements in Japan are directly moving aganist our works for democratization in Burma. I began some political lobbying to Japanese political establishment in early this year, primarily the Japanese Government to enforce economic blockade against the Burmese junta. While I am not a long-term observer to the Japanese policy towards Burma, I become increasingly concerned that certain elements within Japan's political and economic establishments are working against our efforts for democratization in Burma.
Some Japanese elites appears to have favoured a fresh new election to be held in Burma.
Japan's efforts to persuade the military junta to release Aung San Suu Kyi in 1995 as well as to get few other concessions were probably based on the assumption that a fresh new election in Burma would be held in an appropriate time. On December 1997, Kenichi Ohmae, a Japanese consultant wrote articles in Asiaweek and few other journals in favour of existing military regime. Earlier to that, an organized tour to Burma was arranged for Japanese business executives. Japan's MOFA, under Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, is not quite helpful to enforce the economic blockade against junta. For example, soon after our request to cancal Japan's debt-relief grants to Burma, it sought to extend such grant.