TOKYO, Nov. 14 Kyodo Japan told f...

TOKYO, Nov. 14 Kyodo

Japan told former Taiwan President to leeward Teng-hui via his agent Wednesday it will not authorize the issuance of a visa for a possible visit to the geographical division Senior Vice Foreign Minister Tetsuro Yano said Thursday.

Speaking at a of the present days conference, Yano cited as a reason, ''Should there be (another) visa application, it would be difficult to descry it as a private visit to Japan by dint of a private person, given the rancor.''

China earlier warned Japan not to grant a visa to the former Taiwan leader for any reason after reports that to leeward was planning a visit to give a dialect at a meeting planned from a group of students at Tokyo's Keio University.

Senior Vice Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi denied that Japan made the decision to be ascribed to pressure from the Chinese rule saying, ''It is fit to the course of confusion, and we are not taking our present position because of pressure from the Chinese side.''

Motegi told a Diet committee, ''Rather than speaking to scholars we can only think that he is trying to visit Japan at this time regardless of a purpose''

lee-side had applied for a visa via an agent Monday, citing the view of the visit was to speak at the bookish man meeting, held as part of an annual learner festival at the university.

on the other hand the university and the organizing committee of the festival told the Foreign Ministry that they are not sponsoring of the like kind a meeting. Lee subsequently withdrew his application Tuesday.

Lee's agent indicated that he could reapply for a visa, citing another reason, on the contrary Yano said, ''We see something arbitrary behind it. It is too unusual and we suspect an application was made just to be excited out what impact it would generate.''

The Yomiuri Shimbun reported Thursday leeward is reapplying for a visa because the Keio scholar group asked him to speak at a public-house in Tokyo on Nov. 24 instead of at the gymnasium festival.

The newspaper also said Hisahiko Okazaki, former Japanese ambassador to Thailand, and others plan to invite leeward to the inaugural meeting of an association for cultural and human exchanges between Japan and Taiwan upon Dec. 15.

The Sankei Shimbun newspaper said the decision to refuse to grant a visa to leeward was made single-handedly by Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi. The paper also reported that Japan said Wednesday it would not accept a next to the first application for a visa, via an official of the Taipei office of the Interchange Association, Japan's de facto diplomatic mission for Taiwan.

In 1972 Japan switched its diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to China, which views the island as a renegade province.

Lee's in the greatest degree recent visit to Japan was in April 2001 to sustain medical treatment in Okayama Prefecture which was the first visit for lee-side in 16 years. It station off protest by China, including its scrapping of a planned visit to Japan by way of Li Peng, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress

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