Tokyo said the new Thai government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has asked Japan to issue the visa — a move that represents a reversal of the stance by the previous Thai administration, which revoked the billionaire’s Thai passports and aggressively pursued his extradition so he can serve a two-year prison term for abuse of power.

“The Yingluck government’s policy is not to ban former prime minister Thaksin from traveling to any country and it has asked for our help in having ex-PM Thaksin visit Japan and to issue a visa,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told a news conference.

“Considering bilateral ties, it is a given that we respond based on the current official government’s request.”

Thaksin, 62, fled into exile in 2008 a few weeks before he was sentenced. He insists his conviction was part of a vendetta by political opponents whom he says plotted his overthrow in a 2006 coup and pressured court judges to put him in jail.