Japan slams US sanctions on ICC as 'very unfortunate'

In a rare criticism of its US ally, Japan on Wednesday described Washington’s decision to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Japanese president and a senior trial lawyer as “very unfortunate”.

The pushback came after secretary of state Marco Rubio said he was imposing sanctions on Japanese judge and ICC president Tomoko Akane and Abdoulaye Seye, a Senegalese lawyer on the prosecution team that sought an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Japan has consistently supported the ICC, which is a permanent international criminal court, in its efforts to prosecute and punish the most serious crimes of concern to the international community,” Japan’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

The latest escalation in US President Donald Trump’s campaign against The Hague-based court puts Washington directly at odds with Tokyo over an institution that was set up in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. Japan joined in 2007.

Japan, which relies heavily on US military power for its defence, rarely criticises Washington. The sanctions campaign has also put the US at odds with its European allies.

Dutch foreign minister Tom Berendsen earlier said on X that the Netherlands, which hosts the court, opposed the latest US sanctions, and he invited Akane to “discuss our continued support”.

Akane warned in December that US sanctions could “rapidly undermine the court’s operations in all situations and cases and jeopardise its very existence”.

Washington last year sanctioned several ICC prosecutors and judges, citing the court’s arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, as well as an earlier investigation into US troops in Afghanistan.

The measures freeze any US assets held by those sanctioned and largely shut them out of the US financial system, to which most international banks are closely connected.