THOUSANDS SLAM MYANMAR COUP IN TOKYO RALLY

Thousands of people took to the streets in Tokyo on Wednesday in protest against the military coup in Myanmar and called for the international community to stand beside the country's detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

"Free Burma. Free Aung San Suu Kyi," protestors chanted in front of the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo, as they held up photographs of Suu Kyi and posters with messages written in English and Japanese, Kyodo News reported.

"The response from the international community is important. We would like the Japanese government to voice its opinion more," said Kyaw Kyaw Soe, a senior member of the Union of Myanmar Citizen Association and one of the organizers of the rally.

He said he handed a written request to an official of the ministry's Southeast and Southwest Asian Affairs Department.

The Tokyo-based group requested that the Japanese government use its "political, diplomatic and economic power" to restore democracy in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

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