TOKYO: Japan will implement sanctions later this week at the earliest on Belarus for its cooperation with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Wednesday.

“In light of Belarus’ apparent involvement (in the invasion), we’ll impose sanctions on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, as well as other individuals and organizations in the country, and implement export control measures,” Kishida told a meeting of the Budget Committee of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of parliament.

On Japan’s steps against Russia and Belarus, Kishida said, “Although the sanctions will inevitably affect Japanese people and companies, I want the public to understand the importance of acting for the purpose of protecting the foundations of the international order.”

He said the government will work on minimizing the impacts of the sanctions in Japan. Specifically, the government will urge oil-producing countries to increase oil production in a bid to prevent crude oil prices from surging further, according to Kishida.

The prime minister showed a negative stance to calls from both ruling and opposition parties for discussing a possible nuclear-sharing arrangement aimed at jointly operating U.S. nuclear weapons that would be deployed in Japan.

“It would be difficult for the government to approve such an arrangement,” he said, citing Japan’s three nonnuclear principles of not possessing or producing nuclear weapons and not allowing them on Japan’s territory.

“I’m not thinking about discussing the matter,” he added.

Also at the meeting, Kishida expressed his intention to consider attending a review conference on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, or NPT, which was postponed due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“I’m resolved to make my utmost efforts to achieve a world without nuclear weapons, and I attach great importance to the NPT as a cornerstone of the international nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime,” he said.

On the government’s National Security Strategy, or its basic policy for diplomacy and security, to be revised at the end of the year, the prime minister said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will be reflected in the revision work.

He also said that Japan is not in a situation to newly promote cooperation with Russia in economic fields under joint economic activities on four northwestern Pacific islands at the center of a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia. The islands, called the Northern Territories in Japan, were seized from Japan by the former Soviet Union at the end of World War II.

JIJI Press