TOKYO — Thailand’s self-exiled former prime minister is planning to visit tsunami survivors this week as part of a charm offensive to restore his international reputation.
Japanese authorities this month granted a visitor’s visa to Thaksin Shinawatra, who was overthrown in a military coup in 2006 and convicted in absentia of corruption in 2008. His younger sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, became Thailand’s first female prime minister earlier this month.