Tokyo on Tuesday (3/10) condemned a surprise visit to Moscow by a Japanese lawmaker who met with Russia’s deputy foreign minister.
Muneo Suzuki’s trip, which is the first visit by a Japanese lawmaker since Russia invaded Ukraine last year, comes after Japan joined Western allies in sanctioning Moscow over the conflict.
“The government was not briefed by Suzuki regarding this visit to Russia, before or after,” said spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno.
“We issued a warning… to cancel travel to Russia and whatever the destination, we urge all citizens not to travel to Russia,” Matsuno told reporters.
Japan’s ruling LDP lawmaker, Muneo Suzuki, sheds tears during a press conference at LDP headquarters in Tokyo, March 15, 2002, announcing his resignation from the party. (Photo: JIJI Press via AFP)
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Suzuki met with Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko on Monday (2/10).
“The Russian side noted the significant contribution of Japanese parliamentarians to the development of bilateral relations,” the ministry statement said on Tuesday (3/10).
“We regret to state that the legacy of cooperation between the two countries, accumulated over decades, was deliberately destroyed by the sanctions policy implemented by Tokyo to please the United States and the anti-Russian actions of the ‘Western collective,’” he said.
Suzuki is a member of the Japan Innovation Party, a center-right opposition party. He is known to have long supported close Japan-Russia relations.
He was heavily involved in a State Department program aimed at resolving territorial disputes with Russia after World War II.
The upper house member left for Moscow on Sunday “for an inspection tour”, his secretary Shinji Akamatsu told AFP.
Suzuki “visited from a national interest perspective based on his own beliefs,” Akamatsu said.
The Japan Innovation Party — Suzuki’s party — will meet with the lawmaker after his return, a party official said, hinting that the lawmaker may have violated party rules by not informing him of his travel plans before his departure.
Secretary General of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Toshimitsu Motegi, said Suzuki’s visit was “undesirable”.
Suzuki was forced to leave the LDP in the early 2000s after being hit by a bribery and political funding scandal. (ab/uh)