Senior Taliban officials make first known visit to Japan since takeover

TOKYO (Kyodo) — High-level Taliban officials have arrived in Japan, their hosts Japanese grant-making organization Nippon Foundation said Monday, making it the first known visit by the Taliban since their takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021.

Nippon Foundation said the officials are expected to seek insights for future nation building, without disclosing details of the schedule due to “security reasons.” But the Japanese government said its Foreign Ministry’s special representative for Afghanistan, Toshihide Ando, plans to meet with the delegation.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said the visit, while being an initiative of a private organization, is “meaningful” in that it complements the Japanese government’s efforts to work with the international community to “bring a change to the Taliban” regime such as on human rights issues.

The Taliban continue to face criticism for curtailing women’s rights, such as by banning secondary and higher education for girls and imposing restrictions on dress codes and employment opportunities.

In its reasoning for the invitation, the Tokyo-based Nippon Foundation said it wanted Taliban officials “to be aware of the need to broadly accept humanitarian assistance for vulnerable people from the international community.”

The trip was initially unveiled by Latif Nazari, deputy minister of economy of the Taliban regime, who said Saturday on social media platform X that a delegation would be heading to Japan. The group arrived on Sunday.

The Taliban is not recognized by the Japanese government as Afghanistan’s official government.

source : asia.nikkei