A visit of a pro-Russian Japanese senator to Moscow puts the Japanese government in awkward position

A pro-Russian Japanese senator visited Moscow, in the first visit of its kind since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year, prompting the Japanese government to criticize this personal initiative on Tuesday.

The Russian Foreign Ministry reported a bilateral meeting on Monday between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko and Muneo Suzuki, a senator from Japan’s Isshin no Kai party, a populist opposition party.

Japanese government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno said Tuesday during a regular press conference, “Mr. Suzuki didn’t inform the government of his visit to Russia”.

Tokyo has strongly condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine since its beginning and has imposed sanctions on Moscow, like its Western allies.

Therefore, Japan advises all its citizens not to travel to Russia “whatever the reason,” according to Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, who indicated that these instructions also apply to parliamentarians.

She added, “We cannot comment on the reason for Representative Mr. Muneo Suzuki’s visit to Russia and the details of his agenda”.

For his part, Muneo Suzuki’s spokesman Shinji Akamatsu explained to Agence France-Presse on Tuesday that Suzuki left for Moscow on Sunday on an inspection trip, noting that he was making this visit in the name of his own vision of the national interest.

But this move also represents an embarrassment to his party, which said it plans to summon Suzuki upon his return to clarify his position.

For its part, the Russian Foreign Ministry referred in a statement to Mr. Suzuki’s important contribution to the development of Russian-Japanese relations, expressing at the same time its regret that this ancient bilateral cooperation was deliberately destroyed today due to the sanctions imposed by Japan on Russia to please the United States.

Muneo Suzuki, 75, has long been known as an advocate for strengthening Russian-Japanese relations.