(TibetanReview.net, Jul11’24) – Backed by the cross-party Japan-Tibet Parliamentary Association, the Tibetan Parliament in Exile is to organize an international meeting to discuss support for Tibetans early next June in Tokyo, reported japannews.yomiuri.co.jp Jul 11.
Around 90 people including lawmakers and scholars, from 26 countries will attend the meeting. The Dalai Lama, exiled supreme leader of Tibetan Buddhism, is planned to deliver a speech online, the report said.
Held for the first time in 1994, this is the first time the meeting will be hosted in Japan, the report noted.
After the 9th International Conference of Tibet Support Groups meeting in Brussels, Belgium, this will be the 10th such meeting.
The cross-party Japan-Tibet Parliamentary Association, headed by Japan’s former education minister Hakubun Shimomura, is the largest parliamentary support group for Tibet. It includes 105 members of the Diet.
Shu Watanabe, a member of the lower house for the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, serves as acting chair of the association while Keiji Furuya, a member of the lower house for the Liberal Democratic Party who previously chaired the National Public Safety Commission, serves as vice chair.
In 2022, both houses of the Diet adopted a resolution expressing concern about human rights abuses in China including in Tibet, the report noted.