The government will send Deputy Foreign Minister Mitoji Yabunaka to Myanmar for talks as early as Sunday and may withdraw the ambassador, depending on the outcome, Japanese government sources said Friday.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Yabunaka will urge Myanmar's government to conduct a full investigation into Thursday's fatal shooting of Kenji Nagai, a Japanese journalist who was covering the prodemocracy protests in Yangon, and punish those who were involved, the sources said.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>To protest, the government is considering recalling the ambassador and reducing or suspending technical assistance to the country. It will decide on how to proceed after seeing how the military junta reacts to the requests, they said.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said Japan will refrain from immediately imposing sanctions and stopping grant aid to the country, despite the journalist's death and the violence used to suppress the protesters.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>'We're gravely concerned. –

we have to wait and see for a while to decide if we should apply sanctions or not," Fukuda told reporters at the Prime Minister's Official Residence. "We won't immediately apply sanctions because much of Japan's aid is humanitarian."

Tokyo has traditionally used a policy of engagement with Myanmar, in contrast with the United States and European countries.

Japan has imposed no economic sanctions against Myanmar and has continued what it calls urgent and humanitarian assistance, including construction of hospitals and schools in rural areas.

Grant aid from Japan to Myanmar amounted to ¥1.35 billion and technical assistance ¥1.73 billion in 2006. According to data, as of 2004 Japan was the top donor to Myanmar of the 23 member countries of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.