The Burmese community in Japan has condemned the Japanese government and its ministry of defense for accepting four Burmese soldiers to train at Japanese military facilities, reports DVB.

Japan’s Minister of Defense, Nobuo Kishi, said he will accept four cadets from the Myanmar military for military training during a parliament committee session on 26 April.

Burmese expatriates in Japan on social media asked the Japanese government to not go through with the plan, saying that history would not look favorably on the decision and would earn the ire of Burmese people.

Myint Swe, a Burmese activist in Japan, told DVB that he will protest against the Japanese government by working with Japanese NGOs and the Japanese people to raise awareness that the decision would enable the junta to commit atrocities using the money of Japanese taxpayers.

Although the Japanese parliament has condemned the coup in Myanmar, some members of Japan’s ruling party have maintained friendly ties with the military regime, reports DVB. Among them is the founder and chairman of the Japan-Myanmar Association and former MP, Hideo Watanable, an experienced politician who still enjoys sway in Japan's ruling party.

Aside from brokering a number of Japan’s largest trade deals with Myanmar, Watanabe has used media space to praise the virtues of military rule over democracy.

DVB reports that is was told that a Burmese professor at the International University of Japan’s Department of International Relations had collaborated with Watanabe and the junta in devising a scheme aimed at sending military personnel to Japan under scholarship programmes. The Japanese government has already accepted around 30 Myanmar cadets at the Japan National Defense University for military training. 

The Japanese government and various institutions and investors have had a long-term relationship with Burma, one that goes back to prior to independence when General Aung San initially worked with the Japanese military during World War II, only to eventually change sides and cooperate with the Western Allies.