Dalai Lama gets low-key reception on latest visit to Japan

Tokyo, Japan - Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama arrived on his 10th visit to Japan, where the government has no plans to meet with the monk whose international travels are opposed by China.

The Dalai Lama was greeted by some 30 supporters including fellow Buddhist monks as he arrived at Narita airport outside of Tokyo, kicking off an 11-day visit in which he will deliver a series of religious lectures.

The Tibetan leader began his visit with a fresh tribute to Pope John Paul II, who repeatedly met with the Dalai Lama with whom he shared the experience of being a religious figure in a communist regime.

The Roman Catholic leader who was to be buried Friday was "not only a leader of one religion, but a very good human being," the Dalai Lama said.

"We must carry a message of guidance which he showed us," he said.

It is the Dalai Lama's 10th visit to mostly Buddhist Japan, or 14th if including airline transits.

Only one sitting Japanese prime minister has met the Dalai Lama -- Zenko Suzuki in 1980 -- although the monk has regularly met senior leaders of other major industrialized countries, according to the exiled Tibetan leader's office.

A Japanese foreign ministry official said the Dalai Lama was considered a "private figure" and offered no further information on his visit.

The Dalai Lama's office said no talks were expected with Japanese leaders this time.

"The visit is purely religious. His Holiness will be engaged in public talks and teachings," said Tenzin Taklha, the Dalai Lama's secretary.

The visit comes amid rising confrontation between Japan and China over disputed gas reserves and how the two countries remember their World War II history, particularly as Japan aspires to win a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

"It would be an opportunity for Japan to prove itself as an international power, if a Japanese leader meets the Dalai Lama," said Tenzin Choeying, an activist with the Free Tibet movement in Dharamsala, India, where the Tibetan leader lives in exile.

China, which has ruled Tibet since 1951, has regularly protested any meetings by foreign dignitaries with the Dalai Lama, who it accuses of being a separatist seeking to divide the country.

The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 and won the Nobel Peace Prize 30 years later, denies the Chinese allegations and says he is seeking greater freedom within China.

Japan has been increasingly willing to confront China in recent months, issuing a visa in December for a visit by former Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui, who is despised by Beijing for his pro-independence stance.

The Dalai Lama is due to deliver five lectures on his trip to Japan which will take him to Tokyo, the ancient capital Kyoto, the western province of Kanazawa and the southern island of Kyushu.