Japan certainly isn't into the sanctions, see their recent commitment to Russia's Sakhalin-1 gas project.
From naked capitalism, November 1:
A journalist contact who knows the ins and outs of the Financial Times exceedingly well pinged about a new article, Japan cannot survive without Russian oil, warns trading house chief, bleating about the oil and gas sanctions, and without saying so, the going-live-soon G7 oil price cap. Yes, Japan is a member of the G7.
The piece is noteworthy, as our alert colleague correctly noted, because the Financial Times has been a hardliner on Russia generally and the sanctions/economic war in particular.
His remarks:
Roula Khalaf was summoned to Tokyo to have this dictated to her…Khalaf is a careerist and there is no way she would have run this without being ordered to.
Consider additionally:
It is very unusual for the Japanese to make a stink like this. Using a venue like the Financial Times means they wanted the noisemaking to be noticed. The Japanese complain in public only after they’ve tried hard in private and gotten nowhere. This article looks to be the result of official Japan, which has sought and gotten some waivers from the oil and gas sanctions, believing it’s going to be in a very bad way without more relief.
Recall that the EU version of the oil sanctions, was set to add extreme provisions, like permanently barring any vessel that violated the price cap regime from ever getting any services from EU companies, like insurance or even one assumes, resupply at an EU port.
Remember further that Russia has said it simply won’t sell oil subject to a price cap regime. Experts anticipate that response would produce a big jump in oil prices. Japan is already in bad economic shape due to the yen being very weak at a time when commodity prices are high. The article points out that Japan gets 9% of its gas and 4% of its oil from Russia. Those levels may not seem like much, but as the cliche goes, you will be just as dead whether you drown in 6 inches or 6 feet of water....
....MUCH MORE
