Japan planning not to send senior officials to Beijing Olympics: Report

The Japanese government has said it is not planning to send Cabinet ministers and other senior officials to the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

With this, Japan has joined the likes of the US, Australia, Britain and Canada that have announced the diplomatic boycott of games over China human rights records.

Japanese athletes, however, will attend the games in February as scheduled, Kyodo News reported citing sources.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will not announce the plan so as not to directly provoke the Chinese leadership, especially as Japan and China are due to mark the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations in 2022, according to the government sources.

The United States and other countries such as Australia, Britain and Canada have announced similar measures, citing China's human rights record.

The upcoming Beijing Olympics have been marred with controversy as activists and human rights defenders have been calling world leaders to boycott the event considering human rights situations in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Tibet.

The Japanese government has given up on a plan to send senior officials to the Beijing Games because it has seen little improvement in the human rights situations in the far western Xinjiang region and Hong Kong, the sources said.

Last week, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he has no plans to attend the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.