May 28, Colombo: One of Sri Lanka's main donor countries, Japan, says it has no plans to slash aid to Sri Lanka, a news agency reports.

This latest reaction comes after Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Japan to exert greater pressure on Sri Lanka to address violence.

“Japan is not planning to reconsider its aid to Sri Lanka,” the agency said, quoting a Japanese Foreign Ministry official. The official said Tokyo’s peace envoy to Sri Lanka, former United Nations assistant secretary-general Yasushi Akashi, would return to the island on a new mission by early June.

During a week-long mission to Tokyo to meet Japanese officials, Sophie Richardson of HRW said the situation in Sri Lanka “has dramatically worsened over the last year.”