The minister was in Japan - the first major country outside the Southeast Asia region he has visited - as part of a mission to convince foreign governments and business communities to have confidence in the junta-backed administration.

He has met many people and agencies in Japan including his counterpart Taro Aso, the chief of Japan International Co-operation Agency Sodako Ogata, the powerful business association Keidanran, Japanese parliamentarians and foreign journalists.

He also met Yasuhisa Shiozaki, the chief cabinet secretary, and Yasuo Fukuda, a key member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, who is a son of former Japanese prime minister Takeo Fukuda.

The message he conveyed was that the military coup, which he called a "necessary intervention", would bring a stronger and better democracy to the kingdom, along with improved economic policies and measures that will allow foreign business to go on as usual.

Capital control measures and an amendment to the Foreign Business Act were not against foreign businesses but simply moves to shield the Thai people and the economy from the negative consequence of globalisation, he said.

 "Thailand has always been, and continues to remain and will always be an open, market economy … we welcome you. Now and always. We remain open for business," he said.

However, the perception of foreign investors towards Thailand's economic policy was worrisome for the government as the foreign media and analysts have interpreted the advocacy of "sufficiency economy" as an inward looking platform.

Capital controls and the amendment to the foreign business law were deemed as a major backward move.

Nitya told journalists at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan that the previous government under billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra had left many problems for the new government to fix, from deeply vested interests to corruption; from the continuation of violence to past mismanagement of projects.

The current government, which works independently from the junta, came to "get things in order" and would leave on schedule having completed their mission, he said.

Questions from foreign journalists covered a wide-range of issues including asking Nitya to confirm the election schedule, ways to stop violence in the deep South, capital control, press freedom, the Thailand-Japan economic pact and soured relations with Singapore.

Nitya responded to all questions with the official line and journalists who talked to The Nation after the session, said they did not expect anything beyond what a government official can say in public.

Supalak Ganjanakhundee

The Nation

Tokyo