Japan says it won’t send senior officials to Beijing Olympics

Japan announced on Friday that it will not send any senior officials or Cabinet ministers to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics in February, a move that could further strain ties between the two countries.

Japan stopped short of calling the move a diplomatic boycott, according to Reuters. The move from Japan comes after the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia and Lithuania have all announced diplomatic boycotts of the Games.

While Japan will not send any diplomats to the Games it will send some officials who have ties to the Olympics, the report added.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said the officials include Seiko Hashimoto, head of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee, as well as the heads of the domestic Olympic and Paralympic committees.

“Japan believes that it’s important for China to ensure freedom, respect for basic human rights and the rule of law, which are universal values of the international community,” Matsuno said at a news briefing on Friday according to Reuters.

Earlier this month, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he wasn’t planning to attend the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022, but stopped short of saying Japan was participating in a full diplomatic boycott. 

“At the moment, I have no plans to attend,” Kishida said in parliament on Thursday when asked if he would be going, Kyodo News reported.

“It is important to make a judgment by myself at an appropriate time after comprehensively taking into account various issues in consideration of the national interest,” he added.

French President Emmanuel Macron has confirmed that France will not be joining in a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympic Games, calling the move by other nations including the U.S. “symbolic” and “insignificant,” according to the BBC. 

“I don’t think we should politicize these topics, especially if it’s to take steps that are insignificant and symbolic,” Macron said earlier this month.