Japanese journalist killed in Myanmar

A Japanese video journalist who was covering the protests in Myanmar was found dead Thursday after shots were fired in Yangon, Japanese government officials said.

The Foreign Ministry in Tokyo identified the man as Kenji Nagai, 50, a journalist on contract with APF News, a Tokyo-based video news agency.

Nagai had been covering the public protests against Myanmar's junta since Tuesday, said APF representative Toru Yamaji.

Myanmar's Foreign Ministry told officials at the Japanese Embassy in Yangon on Thursday that one of several people found dead after protests that day had a Japanese passport, the Foreign Ministry said.

APF said it was told by the Foreign Ministry later that night that the man in question had Nagai's passport.

A Japanese Embassy official in Yangon said Nagai's father and company officials identified Nagai in a photo taken at the scene of his death by a photographer who also was covering the protests.

The official, however, said he could not immediately confirm reports that said Nagai and other people died after being struck by stray bullets fired by soldiers trying to suppress the protesters.

Reuters reported earlier that a Japanese photographer was killed in Yangon when shots were fired, and that police charged more than a 1,000 people who had come out to protest decades of military rule and poverty under the junta.

Witnesses said dozens of protesters were beaten in at least three or four incidents around Yangon after soldiers told residents they had 10 minutes to vacate the city streets or risk getting shot.

Nagai entered Myanmar on Tuesday intending to stay for around a week. He was supposed to contact the company Thursday night but did not, APF said.

Japan is considering lodging a protest to demand that Myanmar take measures to ensure the safety of its citizens, including the more than 600 Japanese living in the country.

"It was extremely regrettable that the accident occurred as a result of a crackdown on protests," Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said on a televised news show on NHK. "We urge (Myanmar) to respond calmly."

There are also 74 Japanese companies operating there, Machimura said.

Earlier Thursday, Myanmar citizens living in Japan and those seeking refugee status here staged protests in Tokyo and Nagoya against Myanmar's ruling junta.

The protests were prompted by the junta's crackdown on antigovernment protesters that began in Yangon the previous day. At least four were killed and hundreds injured as riot police tried to disperse them.

In a silent protest outside the Myanmar Embassy in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward, about 40 people, who described themselves as prodemocracy Burmese activists, urged the U.N. Security Council to take action against the junta.

In a written statement released at the scene, they also asked for Japan's help in "ending the junta's suppression, releasing prodemocracy activists immediately and getting the junta to engage in dialogue over democratization."

In Nagoya, a group of about 30 Myanmarese monks seeking political refuge in Japan staged a similar protest and called on Japanese to help.

Each was wearing a red headband with the image of a fighting peacock — the symbol of the democracy movement. The protesters also demanded the release of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.