Arab News Japan

DUBAI: The International Criminal Court has elected Japan’s AKANE Tomoko as its new president, making the 67-year-old the first Japanese national to fill the position.

The judge at the Hague-based body assumed the role Monday, with her term set to last three years.

“At this challenging time for the court, stable, collaborative and unified leadership is required,” Akane said in a statement.

“I will focus on fostering dialogue amongst the organs of the court, and defense and victims’ representatives, as well as in reinforcing the dialogue with states parties and states that have not yet ratified the Rome Statute,” a treaty that established the ICC, she also said.

Akane started out as a prosecutor in Japan in 1982. After serving various posts, including president of the Justice Ministry’s Research and Training Institute and a prosecutor at the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office, Akane became an ICC judge in March 2018.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin after his country began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Russia, in retaliation, has put Akane and other ICC members on its wanted list.

Akane graduated from the University of Tokyo and chose to become a public prosecutor due to the lack of opportunities the private sector provided for women and prosecutor since she wanted to be involved in serving justice to victims and criminals.

She served as the chief prosecutor of the Hakodate district in Hokkaido between 2010 and 2012 and was elected the public prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Japan in 2012.

Akane was also a professor in Criminal Justice Practice at both the Chukyo University Law School and the Nagoya University Law School between 2005 and 2009.

Between 2009 and 2010, she was the head of the International Cooperation Department in the Japanese Ministry of Justice between 2009 and 2010.

*With JIJI Press