Japan’s top government officials will not be attending the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, joining United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Lithuania in diplomatic boycott of the games.

Japan‘s diplomatic boycott does not include Japanese athletes, who will continue to participate in the games like the athletes of other states engaged in a diplomatic boycott.

The only government official ‘exception’ will be Seiko Hashimoto – a member of the House of Councilors and the former Minister of State for Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. Japanese Olympic Committee President Yasuhiro Yamashita and Japanese Paralympic Committee President Kazuyuki Mori will also travel to Beijing.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida apparently decided not to make an official announcement to avoid damaging relations with China. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, who announced the move instead of him, also refused to call it a diplomatic boycott, saying that the decision to not send government officials to Beijing “does not have a special term.”

“Japan’s government decided on its response to the Beijing Winter Olympics by taking those points into consideration, and deciding on its own,” he said.

“Japan believes that it’s important for China to ensure freedom, respect for basic human rights and the rule of law, which are universal values of the international community,” Matsuno said.

China did not send a government delegation to the Tokyo Summer Olympics this year, but only a sports delegation, led by the sports bureau chief.

The US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Lithuania have also decided to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in some capacity, citing Chinese human rights concerns.

The 2022 Winter Olympics, officially the XXIV Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Beijing 2022, are an upcoming international winter multi-sport event scheduled to take place from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beijing and towns in the neighboring Hebei province in the People’s Republic of China.