TOKYO - A Japanese government spokesman said Wednesday that it is "very unfortunate" that the United States has imposed sanctions on Tomoko Akane, a Japanese national who heads the International Criminal Court, in Washington's latest move against the Hague-based judicial body.
Japan has "consistently supported" the ICC in its efforts to prosecute and punish "the most serious crimes of concern to the international community" and uphold the rule of law, Foreign Press Secretary Toshihiro Kitamura said in a statement following the U.S. measure Tuesday.
Tokyo will remain committed to "strengthening the rule of law" globally through dialogue with relevant countries and others, Kitamura added.
The sanctions came as President Donald Trump's administration has criticized the ICC for opening an investigation into U.S. military personnel over alleged war crimes in Afghanistan and issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his country's military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
In a statement announcing the sanctions, which also targeted Senegal's Abdoulaye Seye, an ICC senior trial lawyer, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the court as a "corrupt and fatally politicized supranational court that has maliciously abused its authority and exceeded its mandate."
Rubio claimed that Akane and Seye have "directly engaged" in the ICC's efforts to "investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute" officials whose governments have not consented to its jurisdiction.
When Rubio announced last month the launch of a "sweeping campaign to dismantle the threat" he said the ICC poses to his nation's sovereignty, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's government said that Japan, a close U.S. ally, was "watching closely with concern."
Akane, a former Japanese prosecutor, began her three-year term in 2024 as the organization's first president from Japan.
