Japan won’t send government delegation to Beijing Olympics

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Japan says it won’t send a delegation of ministers to represent the government at the Beijing Games but three Olympic officials will attend. The decision follows a U.S.-led move to diplomatically boycott the Games to protest China’s human rights conditions. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno says “we have no plans to send a government delegation.” Matsuno says the decision is Japan’s own and not to join earlier moves by the United States and others. Matsuno also declined to call it a diplomatic boycott.