Japanese ambassador Shigekazu Sato has expressed serious concern over Thailand's political uncertainty.
Echoing the stance of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, the ambassador to Thailand said the current political situation worried Japan.
"As the largest foreign investor in the country with a big Japanese community living here, we wish all parties concerned will resolve the conflicts in a peaceful and democratic manner within the framework of the constitution," Mr Sato told an audience of about 100 at an event on Thursday to celebrate Japanese Emperor Akihito's 80th birthday on Dec 23.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo during her four-day official visit to Japan on May 23 this year. (Government House photo)
Prime Minister Abe said on Dec 15 that Japan was worried about the situation in Thailand, where large-scale demonstrations have been taking place with some protesters occupying government buildings. There have even been deaths and casualties.
Japan, Mr Abe said, strongly hoped that the situation would be settled peacefully soon, and it expected that the election would be held fairly and smoothly.
In an interview with the Bangkok Post, Mr Sato said "peacefully settled" meant no coup and no further violence.
Asked if Japan supported the Feb 2 general election, he said Japanese leaders never mentioned the actual date as that was Thailand's internal affair.
But he noted that having a caretaker cabinet, or some form of interim government as proposed by protesters, might cause administrative hiccups in policy decisions. This would cause concerns to both Japanese investors and Thai people.
In another development, former foreign minister Kasit Piromya challenged foreign diplomats to keep quiet and accommodate the Thai people's desire for deeper reforms that might not fit some foreigners' conventional take on democracy.
In an interview with the Bangkok Post on Wednesday, Mr Kasit said anti-government protesters had been trying to find a solution for chronic conflicts within Thai society with the aim of maintaining the constitutional monarchy, but some foreign commentators and groups seemed too myopic to see the facts.
Kasit: "Thailand is struggling in its democratisation process."
"They have had 200 years to become a fully fledged democratic polity," he said of countries such as the United States. "Thailand is struggling in its democratisation process which just began with the end of absolute monarchy in 1932.
"They have impeachment mechanisms and the politicians in countries such as Japan, Taiwan, and Latvia, etc. have more moral and political responsibility than the current Thai leaders," said Mr Kasit, now a vice-chairman of the Democrat Party's policy committee.
In his view, Thailand just needed to suspend, but not abolish, the election to allow greater reform for more power to the communities and the region to take shape over six to 12 months.
In the meantime, he said, "the foreign entities should just shut up their comments."
Rebutting comments by foreign diplomats and media that portrayed the protests as an anti-democracy movement, he said the Yingluck Shinawatra government was a proxy dictated by one person and no longer legitimate.
"Look back to your own history; how painful and cumbersome it was to get rid of mafia and money politics," said the former diplomat. "Some countries even had genocide.
"For us, we are just weeding out these illiberal elements of democracy from the Thai society."
He also said that those who protested at foreign embassies were not making threats but "an expression of will to remind them not to liaise with an illegitimate government."
He also reassured that military intervention was unlikely as the military realised its own failure after the 2006 coup and was aware of international reactions.