Japan, which typically takes its lead on foreign policy from the U.S. – one of its closest allies – is expected to follow along with American-led measures to isolate Russia made in response to Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
The government has joined sanctions limiting transactions with Russia's central bank and is cooperating in locking some Russian banks out of the SWIFT interbank payment system. Japan also plans to freeze assets held by Russia President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials sanctioned by the U.S.
As possible blowback for the sanctions, the computer system of a major Toyota supplier was hit with a cyberattack, causing the automaker to suspend production at 14 factories, affecting a third of its production.
Japan has not yet put any restrictions on imports from Russia, nor have there been any moves to seize assets of Russian corporations. As Japan and Russia have not signed a peace treaty due to an ongoing territorial dispute over the Kuril Islands, there is limited direct investment between the countries.
Russia banned all food imports from the U.S. and several other countries in 2014, in tit-for-tat sanctions over the Russian annexation of Crimea. Alaska’s congressional delegation has now introduced bills for a reciprocal ban on Russian seafood. But things have moved in the opposite direction for Japanese seafood, as in 2018, Russia lifted a ban on seafood from prefectures surrounding Fukushima that had been instituted after the nuclear accident there.
If Japan implements further banking restrictions on Russia, it could interfere with trade, including the seafood industry. Japan buys significant amounts of crab from Russia, mainly king and snow crab. Japan’s imports from Russia of crustaceans in 2021 was valued at USD 50.53 million (EUR 45.4 million). Japan also buys Alaska pollock and the roes of salmon and pollock – used in the popular spicy cod roe product called “mentaiko" – in significant quantities from Russia.
The total value of all of Japan’s imports of Russian seafood in 2020, according to the government’s most recent Fisheries White Paper, was JPY 103.9 billion (USD 900 million, EUR 800 million), representing about 7 percent of Japan’s seafood imports. Besides Japan, Russia is at risk of losing many other seafood-trading partners as a result of its actions in Ukraine.
Photo courtesy of 首相官邸ホームページ/Wikimedia Commons
