Myanmar's democracy hero Aung San Suu Kyi arrived in Japan on Saturday, her first visit to the country where she spent time as a university researcher nearly three decades ago. A group of well-wishers including Burmese gathered at Tokyo's Narita airport to greet the Suu Kyi, now her country's opposition leader, but were denied the chance to meet her as she left through a backdoor. "I respect her like my mother," one of Burmese women said in an interview with public broadcaster NHK. "I want to tell her that I support her strongly."

Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Saturday called for her once-banned party to unify amid concerns that internal squabbles could undermine its push for power at historic polls in 2015. Speaking at the first ever congress of her popular but politically callow National League for Democracy (NLD) party, Suu Kyi urged a revival of the "spirit of fraternity" which saw it build a huge base during iron-fisted junta rule.

Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition opened a historic conference on Friday seen as a key chance to revitalise the popular but inexperienced party, which faces major challenges ahead of elections in 2015. The Nobel laureate's National League for Democracy (NLD), for years banned by a junta that lived in fear of its huge public support, has been urged to enlist the help of outside experts and inject new blood into its elderly top ranks.