Japan sets out aid plan for Myanmar

Japan will provide aid worth 800 billion yen ($7.8 billion) to Myanmar over five years to support its peace-building and development efforts, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Wednesday.

About 40 billion yen of the aid planned by the government and private sector will be directed toward supporting ethnic minorities in the South East Asian nation.

"We hope this aid will help spread the fruit of peace building to various regions in Myanmar, and drive it forward," Abe told a news conference in Tokyo with Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi.