Via commenter news4vip, It looks like Japan’s royal family will not be attending the Beijing Olympics. While there are other underlying factors for this decision, including China exporting tainted food to Japan, it appears that China’s violent crackdown in Tibet has been the deciding factor in the government’s decision not to ask the royal family to go to Beijing.

Japan’s Emperor Akihito and other members of the royal family are unlikely to attend the Beijing Olympics amid concerns here about China’s crackdown in Tibet and other issues, a report said Wednesday.

The Japanese government thinks it is not a good time for a rare royal visit because of the unrest in Tibet, a recent health scare over Chinese-made “gyoza” dumplings and a spat over disputed gas fields, the Sankei daily said.

“We were planning not to ask royals to go even before the gyoza incident (surfaced in January). It is all the more true now that the Tibetan unrest occurred,” it quoted an unnamed government official as saying.