The Myanmar community in Japan and people who have ties with the Southeast Asian country's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday expressed their surprise and worry over her detention by the military, with some of them staging a protest.
Hundreds of people including Myanmarese residents in the country gathered in front of the United Nations University in central Tokyo in protest at the military takeover. Holding up banners and pictures of Suu Kyi, they urged the Japanese government to call for her release and that of all parliamentarians.
Concerns over the future of Myanmar are growing after the military staged the coup following a landslide victory by her ruling National League for Democracy in the November general election. The military had disputed the outcome.
Protestors wore masks and headbands featuring the red flag of her ruling party, the National League for Democracy.
"It's unforgivable for the military to target the day when parliament was set to begin after last year's elections," said Than Swe, 58, who led the organizing group.
Kyaw Zin Oo, who came to the protest from the city of Saitama near Tokyo, called the recent development "vexing," describing Suu Kyi as an "important person for Myanmar."
People close to her also expressed their anxiety over the fate of the icon of Myanmar's democracy.
Sadayoshi Otsu, the 82-year-old honorary professor of Kobe University who is friends with the leader, said, "I can't believe it has come to this. She's elderly so I'm worried about her health."
Yoshihiro Tsubouchi, an honorary professor at Kyoto University, who knew Suu Kyi from her days as a researcher at the university's Center for Southeast Asian Studies in the 1980s, said he hoped she "is not in danger."
"I felt she was having a hard time but I had not realized that it was this bad," said Tsubouchi, 83.
Suu Kyi, Myanmar's state counselor and also foreign minister, was awarded an honorary doctorate from the university in 2016.
The manager of a restaurant in the Takadanobaba district in Tokyo, called "Little Yangon" for its thriving Myanmar community, was stunned at the development.
"Ms. Suu Kyi made great efforts to prevent such situations. It is something that should not happen, and I am shocked," Yu Yu Wai, 58, said about the democracy activist who had spent decades under house arrest in the past.
"I am surprised. We can only watch the situation," said Katsuhiko Nishina, chairman of the Japan Myanmar Friendship Association, which promotes bilateral cultural and business exchanges.
Nishina, 54, said that "investment and trade would be affected even more" if the current situation makes travel to and from Myanmar even harder, given that border traffic has already been restricted due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Masayuki Sayama, president of Masa Clean Co. that operates a number of businesses in Yangon including construction planning, said he is not surprised with the latest situation.
"The upper ranks of the government still feature outdated aspects including bribery," Sayama, 69, said, adding, "Top officials and civil servants are probably unable to welcome democracy."
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