{"id":36338,"date":"2026-08-21T04:31:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T04:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=36338"},"modified":"2026-08-21T04:31:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T04:31:26","slug":"japan-criticises-us-over-unfortunate-sanctions-on-icc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=36338","title":{"rendered":"Japan criticises US over &#8216;unfortunate&#8217; sanctions on ICC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__inherit-color__PhuPF text-module__inherit-font__1P1hv text-module__inherit-size__EyiQW link-module__link__INqxZ link-module__underline_default__-okuC link-module__with-icon__qlg76 collapsible-caption-module__license__CPQvV\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reutersconnect.com\/item\/the-international-criminal-court-is-seen-in-the-hague-netherlands\/dGFnOnJldXRlcnMuY29tLDIwMjU6bmV3c21sX1JDMjBYR0FGSlQ4Qg%3D%3D\/?utm_medium=rcom-article-media&amp;utm_campaign=rcom-rcp-lead\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/resizer\/v2\/L5L7CNW2IJKXZM2Z37NWBWN6PY.jpg?auth=fd1f8efc7c14fed8cac90033cdecfc9f9858cbfa8aa58075f1365b205da936d3&amp;width=1920&amp;quality=80\" alt=\"The International Criminal Court is seen in the Hague, Netherlands\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Summary<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>ICC says latest U.S. move brings number of sanctioned staff members to 13<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Japan says it consistently supports ICC efforts to prosecute grave international crimes<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sanctions freeze U.S. assets and \u200blargely cut targets off from U.S. financial system<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> In a rare criticism of its U.S. \u200cally, Japan on Wednesday described Washington&#8217;s decision to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/asia-pacific\/us-sanctions-international-criminal-court-president-treasury-department-website-2026-08-18\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">impose sanctions<\/a>\u00a0on the International Criminal Court&#8217;s Japanese president and a senior trial lawyer as &#8220;very unfortunate.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The pushback came after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was imposing sanctions on Japanese judge and ICC President Tomoko Akane and \u200bAbdoulaye Seye, a Senegalese lawyer on the prosecution team that sought an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime \u200bMinister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Make sense of global markets with the Trading Day newsletter.&nbsp;Sign up&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/newsletters\/trading-day\/?location=article-paragraph&amp;redirectUrl=%2Fworld%2Fasia-pacific%2Fjapan-says-us-sanctions-icc-president-akane-very-unfortunate-2026-08-19%2F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. State Department had said on July 13 that &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/trump-administration-launches-effort-isolate-international-criminal-court-2026-07-13\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">no diplomatic option will be \u2060off-limits<\/a>&nbsp;in the campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the ICC to Americans.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The measures freeze any U.S. \u200bassets held by those sanctioned and largely shut them out of the U.S. financial system, to which most international banks \u200bare closely connected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;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,&#8221; Japan&#8217;s foreign ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The latest escalation in U.S. President \u200bDonald Trump&#8217;s campaign against the Hague-based court puts Washington directly at odds with Tokyo over an institution that was \u200bset up in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. Japan joined in 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Advertisement \u00b7 Scroll to continue<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Japan, which relies heavily on U.S. \u200cmilitary power \u2060for its defence, rarely criticises Washington. The sanctions campaign has also put the U.S. at odds with its European allies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">ICC DEPLORES US MOVE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ICC on Wednesday said it &#8220;deplores&#8221; the latest move by Washington, which took the number of sanctioned staff members to 13, including nine out of eighteen judges, both deputy prosecutors, the former prosecutor and a \u200btrial attorney. &#8220;These sanctions are a \u200bflagrant attack against the independence \u2060of an impartial judicial institution,&#8221; it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;When judicial actors are threatened for applying the law, it is the international legal order itself that is placed at risk. Threats and \u200bcoercive measures also impact the ability of victims to seek justice, as they turn \u200bto the court \u2060when all other avenues have been exhausted,&#8221; it said.00:21Imran Khan would not confront army chief if freed, spokesman says<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At least five of the court&#8217;s 125 member states have announced plans to withdraw in recent months amid escalated U.S. pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen said on X that the Netherlands, which \u2060hosts \u200bthe court, opposed the latest U.S. sanctions, and he invited Akane to &#8220;discuss \u200bour continued support.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Akane warned in December that U.S. sanctions could \u201crapidly undermine the court\u2019s operations in all situations and cases and jeopardize its very existence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reference Link:- <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/asia-pacific\/japan-says-us-sanctions-icc-president-akane-very-unfortunate-2026-08-19\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/asia-pacific\/japan-says-us-sanctions-icc-president-akane-very-unfortunate-2026-08-19\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a rare criticism of its U.S. \u200cally, Japan on Wednesday described Washington&#8217;s decision to\u00a0impose sanctions\u00a0on the International Criminal Court&#8217;s Japanese president and a senior trial lawyer as &#8220;very unfortunate.&#8221; The pushback came after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was imposing sanctions on Japanese judge and ICC President Tomoko Akane and \u200bAbdoulaye Seye, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[512,25457,7247,1898,33826,33825,33675,33827,349],"class_list":["post-36338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sample-category","tag-america-2","tag-icc-2","tag-injustice","tag-japan-2","tag-japan-criticises","tag-sanction-ob-icc","tag-unfair-2","tag-unfortunate-2","tag-us-2","post_format-post-format-aside"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36338"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36339,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36338\/revisions\/36339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}