Japan will not send ministerial officials to the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February, the Japanese government announced Friday, December 24, after diplomatic boycotts decided by several Western countries, including the United States. The latter accuse the host country of not respecting human rights.
Japanese government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno avoided calling the move a boycott, but said Japan “does not plan to send government officials” at the Winter Olympics in China.
“Japan believes that it is important that the common values shared by the international community, such as freedom, human rights and the rule of law, are also respected in China.”
Hirokazu Matsuno, Japanese government spokesperson
On the other hand, the president of the Tokyo Games organizing committee Seiko Hashimoto will go there, as well as the president of the Japanese Olympic committee Yasuhiro Yamashita, the Japanese government spokesperson said. Ms. Hashimoto will go to Beijing “to express gratitude and respect to the athletes and others who supported the Tokyo Games” organized last summer, he added.
Japan made this decision after “a thorough examination” of the question. It came after the US, UK, Australia and Canada this month announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Games (February 4-20, 2022) to denounce human rights abuses of Man in China.
China warns four Western countries, which will send athletes to the Games but not officials, that they will pay “the price of their bad move”, without specifying what reprisals were being considered.
On Friday, the spokesperson in Tokyo pointed out that “the Japanese government did not intend to use a particular expression concerning the presence of Japan” at the Winter Olympics in China. And he noted that the US government’s announcement does not include the phrase “diplomatic boycott”.
Japan, host of the Tokyo 2020 Games postponed for a year because of the coronavirus, finds itself in a delicate diplomatic position between the United States and China, two major trading partners. The country had so far not made known its position.
South Korea, another ally of the United States, for its part announced early last week that it would not diplomatically boycott the Games, citing the need to continue to cooperate with China. For its part, Russia considers the “diplomatic boycott” as an attempt to politicize the Olympics and has confirmed that President Vladimir Poutine will go to the Beijing Winter Olympics.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has invoked its “neutrality” on the matter, declining to comment on “purely political decisions” and especially rejoicing at the absence of a sports boycott.
According to human rights organizations, at least one million Uyghurs and other Turkish-speaking minorities, mainly Muslims, are being held in camps in Xinjiang. China is accused of forcibly sterilizing women there and imposing forced labor. The United States denounces “genocide” on this subject. Beijing says the camps are in fact “vocational training centers” to fight radicalization.