Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama plans to visit Japan for two weeks from October 30 on a lecture tour, his office said Friday, despite Chinese opposition to his travels.
The Nobel laureate has visited Japan 11 times, or 16 times if airport transits are counted. The Tokyo government has granted him visas on condition that he refrain from political activities.
“His Holiness has no plans to meet Japanese politicians or business leaders during the tour,” said Wang Tse, a spokesman for his liaison office in Tokyo. “We are in the process of applying for his entry visa.”
The Dalai Lama last visited Japan in April 2005 on a similar lecture tour despite protests from Beijing. No senior Japanese officials met him on the visit, which was described as private by the foreign ministry.
Only one sitting Japanese prime minister has met the Dalai Lama — Zenko Suzuki in 1980 — although the monk has regularly met senior leaders of other major industrialized countries.
The 71-year-old Tibetan is scheduled to join two other Nobel Peace Prize winners, Betty Williams of Northern Ireland and South African Bishop Desmond Tutu as guest speakers at a symposium in Hiroshima on November 1 and 2.
He will stay in the western city, which suffered the world’s first nuclear attack in the closing days of World War II, until November 9 to give more lectures and attend a Buddhist ceremony, the office said.
The Dalai Lama will then move to Tokyo and deliver a speech, entitled “A good heart – the key to health and happiness,” the office said.
He is due to leave on November 12 to return to the northern Indian town of Dharamsala where he lives in exile.
China, which has ruled Tibet since 1951, has regularly protested any meetings by foreign dignitaries with the Dalai Lama.
The Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 and won the Nobel Peace Prize 30 years later, denies Chinese accusations he is a “splittist” and says he is seeking greater autonomy for Tibet under Chinese rule.
Japan and China have recently had tense relations in part over the legacy of Japanese aggression.
