The Japanese government decided to host an international conference in Tokyo regarding Syria later this month. The Japanese Radio Corporation said that the Japanese government would like to provide opportunity to the international community in order to discuss methods for cooperation in order to apply the sanctions on the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and to increase the efficacy of these sanctions. The Japanese government expects a large number of senior officials from western countries and the Middle East to attend the conference as well as representatives from the Syrian opposition. The Japanese government encourages Asian countries which hesitated to impose sanctions on Syria to cooperate with the international community in order to increase the pressure on the Syrian regime. The USA and European countries had applied their own sanctions. Japan, has frozen the assets of senior Syrian government officials.