Sticking with its biggest ally the United States, Japan has decided not to apply for founding membership of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank before the March 31 deadline.

Chiming in with the US, Japan has claimed that the AIIB will challenge the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank and it too has raised the issue of transparency.

Japan's daily Nikkei Shimbun reported that Japan's Ministry of Finance, based on its intelligence, told the Abe cabinet that the other six leading industrialized nations would not be interested in the AIIB membership. As a result, the Japanese government had not discussed fully the benefits Japan would garner if it joined the bank that will launch late this year.