May 26, 2021,
Military troops and police go on patrol at Kayah state, eastern Myanmar, Sunday, May 23, 2021
Japan should play a bridging role to Myanmar's junta rather than following the Western policy of regime change, said a senior official at the Japan-Myanmar Association, which has strong ties with Myanmar's military.
"I argue that Japan must position itself as a bridge between the Tatmadaw and the United States and other democratic countries rather than blindly aligning itself with the Western policy of regime change," Yusuke Watanabe, the association's secretary general, said in an opinion piece for the Diplomat magazine.