Suu Kyi planning Japan trip

JAPAN: Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi plans to visit Japan later this year to discuss her country's political reform process, a report said Thursday.

The Nobel laureate, who was sworn in as a member of parliament Wednesday, also plans to embark on a tour to Britain and Norway in mid-June, her party said last month, as part of her first trip outside Myanmar in 24 years.

Suu Kyi conveyed her desire to visit Tokyo during a meeting with Japan's ambassador to Myanmar, Takashi Saito, at her home in Yangon in early April, the Japanese business daily Nikkei reported, citing an unnamed source.

She has not set foot outside Myanmar since 1988, fearing that the ruling generals would prevent her from returning to the impoverished country, where she was locked up for most of the past two decades.

Suu Kyi's decision to venture out of Myanmar is the latest sign of change in the country, which is opening to the world after almost half a century of repressive junta rule and isolation from the West. AFP