The United States has urged Japan to consider imposing economic sanctions on Moscow if Russian troops invade Ukraine, media sources said on Saturday.
Japan, however, withdrew its response to the US request, fearing that there could be problems in both bilateral and Russian affairs, including a territorial dispute that Tokyo has long sought to win, sources said.
With tensions mounting over a possible attack on a large Russian military base on the border with neighboring Ukraine, Washington hopes to unite Japan with other law-abiding nations by pressuring Moscow not to attack.
The United States and its European allies have warned that Russia will face “serious consequences,” including economic and financial sanctions, if its troops invade Ukraine.
According to Japanese-US media, Washington has conveyed to Japan via social media that it has not tolerated Russian military action and has urged Tokyo to intensify its criticism of Russia.
During a summit with US President Joe Biden late last month, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida promised to “take strong action in response to any Ukraine attack” by Russia and to continue working closely with the United States and other allies.
But Japan is facing a balanced act of compromising with the United States and other Western nations and trying not to shake Moscow’s feathers in order to resolve a dispute over the sovereignty of the archipelago lying near Hokkaido, sources said.
The decades-long dispute over Russian-occupied islands, called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia, has prevented Tokyo and Moscow from entering into a post-war peace agreement.
Japan “will be forced to take appropriate action in the event of an attack,” said a Japanese government source.
But there are calls within the government that it would be better not to announce the imposition of sanctions before the attack, unlike the United States and the European Union.
Kishida told parliament last month that Japan was watching the deployment of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border and development related to “serious concerns,” adding that Japan would address the issue effectively using a framework of the Seven Developed Groups.
Following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, Japan imposed sanctions on Russia, in line with US and European sanctions.
But not wanting to escalate ties with Russia over regional conflicts, Japan’s sanctions, which include restrictions on imports made from Crimea, appear to be ineffective.
In Tokyo, Russia’s ambassador to Japan Mikhail Galuzin warned at a recent news conference that Japan’s plans to accept sanctions against Russia, in line with those imposed on Moscow by other Western countries in the event of military violence in Ukraine, “would be rejected.”