Japan's cabinet on Friday approved additional sanctions against Russia over its war on Ukraine, including freezing the assets of dozens of individuals and groups and banning exports to dozens of organizations in Russia and several other countries that have allegedly helped it evade sanctions.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said Friday’s approval of the additional sanctions shows Japan’s commitment to efforts by the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations to strengthen sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
Japan has imposed several previous rounds of sanctions, and the latest step comes after Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba reaffirmed the country's policy at an online G7 summit in mid-December following Russia's increased cooperation with North Korea and use of third countries in evading sanctions.
“It is Japan’s contribution as part of the international effort toward achieving global peace and resolving the problems surrounding Ukraine because of the Russian invasion,” Hayashi said.
According to a joint statement by Japan’s foreign, trade and finance ministries, 11 individuals, 29 organizations and three banks from Russia, as well as a North Korean trading company executive and a Georgian bank that allegedly helped evade sanctions, were added to an asset freeze list.
The Cabinet approved total export bans on 22 Russian organizations, including ones related to the military, as well as technology and machinery makers.
Export restrictions will also be applied to 31 non-Russian groups that the government says helped Russia to divert restricted goods and evade sanctions — 11 based in Hong Kong, seven in mainland China, eight in Turkey, two in Kyrgyzstan and one each in Thailand, the UAE and Kazakhstan.
It also approved a list of 335 items that cannot be exported to Russia, effective Jan. 23. That list includes construction vehicle engines and components, motorized bicycles, communication and acoustic devices, and mechanical tools and valves, according to the trade and industry ministry.
The additional sanctions and export restrictions are in line with the G7's effort to prevent Russia from evading sanctions with help from third countries and include a ban on exporting materials that could help strengthen Russia’s industrial base, Hayashi said.
Japan has closely cooperated with the G7 in imposing sanctions against Russia and supporting Ukraine amid growing concern about the war’s impact on Asia, where China has threatened to use force to exert its control over Taiwan.
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28 Comments
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Tokyo Guy
Excellent.
While the Russian people (at least the 12 per cent of them who apparently had the spine to vote for someone other than Putin, if the data is correct) may not deserve the results of these sanctions, their government absolutely does.
Keep them coming and make them hurt.
Mr Kipling
Japan and almost ALL EU countries are knowingly buying Russian oil and gas. They are ALL knowingly shipping goods to Georgia and the "stans" that then go to Russia.
Russian oil going to India, put in a tank, then shipped to Belgium is now "Indian" oil. No sanctions broken, all within the rules.
The only people being hurt by the "sanctions" are European consumers paying more for their energy.
Meiyouwenti
What kind of sanctions would Japan and the EU be imposing on the US if Trump invaded and annexed Greenland?
Fos
Tokyo Guy
Sheer hypocrisy Made in USA:
Russia invading a country in the name of protecting security interests from perceived threats on its border = wrong, evil, worst thing ever.
Israel invading a country in the name of protecting security interests from perceived threats on its border = fine, normal, above board, nothing-to-see-here.
Wick's pencil
And did Japan sanction the US when they invaded Syria? Or sanction Israel?
TaiwanIsNotChina
At what point did you realize your hero russia was interchangeable with Israel?
TaiwanIsNotChina
One can be in favor of sanctioning the aggressor in Ukraine without a bunch whataboutism getting in the way.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Also even the russian hasn't been able to shamelessly fabricate an attack on russia prior to Feb. 24th 2022.
OssanAmerica
Not going to happen in anyone's lifetime. Greenland becomming independent of Denmark, very possibly.
Fos
As we all know the United States played a key role in generating and perpetuating this terrible conflict in Ukraine since the Bucharest Nato meeting in 2008.
Once again this conflict reveals an unbelievable hypocrisy: regional or global powers act based on balances of power and not on motives that have to do with morals and ethics
JJE
More to this than meets the eye.
Tokyo is having a cope session because the other day Moscow announced at the UN that Tokyo can forever kiss goodbye their chances of ever getting a permanent seat at the table. He can fax his buddies in Berlin informing them too and they can cope together.
Brian Wheway
I was under the impression that when this all kicked off in Ukraine and a lot of counties put sanctions on Russia, a lot of financial transactions went through China Which circumnavigated any restrictions, but it's time to close down these routes, and keep looking out for any new routes that open up.
JJE
Did impose a ban on imported seafood into Hokkaido from the Russian Far East.... oops.
JJE
Did he impose a ban on gas from Sahkalin 2... oops again.
The_Beagle
Bite the hand that feeds.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/rival-lng-supplies-sakhalins-depleting-fields-give-japan-an-exit-russian-gas-2024-12-11/
TaiwanIsNotChina
Membership declarations from NATO are not a declaration of war between non-NATO countries 14 years later.
JJE
What happened to the good old days when Japan would export sensitive technology to the USSR via dummy corporations...
Where there is money to be made, it will be made: watch.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Pretty worthless having that seat with russia having declared war on civilization. Tokyo will get that seat shortly before russia's disgraces have international recognition.
JJE
In 100 days, if Trump ponies up and does the sensible thing, those regions will have demarcated UN-observed borders next to their truncated neutralist neighbour.
Tokyo will never ever get a seat at the adult table.
BertieWooster
I wonder if this has anything to do with the recent visit from the US Ambassador to Japan?
Fos
The truth is Ukraine and Ukrainians continue to suffer the consequences of this massacre. And the conflict is a dangerous, unwinnable proxy war undertaken by the White House against Russia. Praising the big US industrial military complex will make things worse
TaiwanIsNotChina
He will have to sell the Putin plan to the American people. My guess is there will be no buyers.
And neither will russia.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Still Putin's War
Fos
CPowell
A reminder that truth and trust does not come from the US military dispatches you receive, or the first digital platform you find, but from old good print books
BigP
Just don’t mention” Sahkalin 2”.
Agent_Neo
In the case of Japan, crude oil imports from Russia previously accounted for only 3.6% of the total, and have already been stopped.
In 2023, Japan will continue to import natural gas, but it goes without saying that this is for industrial use.
And if the United States or other countries propose it, Japan will stop importing Russian natural gas at any time.
It will be interesting to see how Trump responds.
TaiwanIsNotChina
A reminder that you don't get to just read one viewpoint and call yourself educated on a topic.
Fos
Agent_Neo
Perhaps we should mention that the the natural gas from the American market, as opposed to Russian gas, is far from clean. From the time that it is extracted using a destructive drilling method called fracking, liquefied natural gas leaves a greenhouse gas footprint that is 33% worse than coal, when processing and shipping are taken into account, according to a new Cornell study.
LNG terminals release harmful air pollutants—such as volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter—that can contribute to increased incidences of respiratory disease, heart disease, and cancer.
Indeed, a 2019 study attributed a decade of growth in global atmospheric methane emissions to the fracking boom in the United States.
What's more, LNG — which the U.S. sends in by the ton — is by definition much more expensive than Russian gas. This has hurt the bottom line of the EU's top manufacturing countries, a list headed by Germany, Italy and Eastern European nations.