Japan imposes fresh sanctions on Russia, others over Ukraine war

Japan has slapped fresh sanctions on Russia, including freezing the assets of the country's dozens of financial institutions and individuals for being "directly" involved in or supporting Moscow's war against Kiev.

Tokyo said it will freeze assets and impose other restrictions on 42 Russian entities and 11 individuals considered to be "directly" involved in the “annexation” of the autonomous republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol or the destabilisation of the eastern part of Ukraine, according to a statement by the Foreign Ministry on Thursday.

Similar actions will be taken against one entity and as many individuals in the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine, are considered to be directly involved in the purported “incorporation” by Russia, the statement said.

Sanctions will come into effect immediately, it noted.

Tokyo introduced some measures considering "the current international situation over Ukraine, and to contribute to the international efforts for achieving international peace aimed at a solution of the issue, in line with the measures taken by other major countries," the statement further said.

The new measures included the prohibition on exports to specific entities of the Russian Federation and countries other than the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus.

A permission system will also be applied to payments, capital transactions, individuals, and entities designated by the Foreign Ministry.

Japan's blacklist

The list includes the Central Election Commission Secretary Natalia Budarina, along with five other commission members, as well as Tactical Missiles Corporation head Boris Obnosov, Director-General of Russian tank maker Uralvagonzavod Alexander Potapov, and the chief designer of the Soyuz Aircraft Engine Scientific and Technical Complex, Mkrtich Okroyan.

Russian diamond miner Alrosa, as well as the Tupolev and Ilyushin aircraft makers, are among the blacklisted companies.

The list of companies, whose assets are to be frozen if found in Japan, includes the Russian Federal Nuclear Center and several mechanical engineering and defense sector companies, such as Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant, Degtyaryov Plant, Izhevsk Kupol Electromechanical Plant, Perm Powder Plant, Nizhny Novgorod Plant of the 70th Anniversary of Victory, Arzamas Instrument-Building Plant, and the North Western Regional Center of Almaz Antey Concern Obukhovsky Plant.

The list also includes seven companies from China, including Alpha Trading Investments, Guangzhou Ausay Technology and Shenzhen Biguang Trading, as well as the UAE’s Sun Ship Management, India’s Si2 Microsystems, Kazakhstan’s Elem Group, and Uzbekistan’s Mvizion LLC, according to Russian media.

More than 1,000 individuals and over 150 entities from Russia are already on Japan's blacklist of sanctions, which were introduced in several stages due to the situation in Ukraine.