TOKYO, April 3. /TASS/. Those Japanese companies that continue to operate or maintain their presence in Russia can count on maximum assistance from the state, Russian Ambassador to Japan Nikolay Nozdrev stated this in an interview with TASS. According to him, Japanese companies working with Russia can be divided into three groups.

"The first are those who decided to finally leave the Russian market fearing the risks and succumbing to powerful pressure from the Japanese political elite," he said. According to the diplomat, "given the rather highly competitive nature of the Russian market, this means that they have lost it." "Unfortunately, we won’t be able to help them with anything," he said.

The second group includes companies "which, understanding the importance of the Russian market for their foreign interests in the long term, have either suspended or partially frozen their activities, but generally maintain their presence in Russia." The companies from the third group "have found new mechanisms and channels for realizing their commercial objectives." "Having adapted to the new reality, they are functioning successfully," the ambassador said.

As for the companies that continue to operate or maintain their presence in Russia, the ambassador said: "We will certainly provide maximum assistance, primarily through the relevant departments, in order to solve the problems that they have in their daily commercial and production activities."

According to data published in February by the Japan External Trade Development Organization (JETRO), 34.9% of Japanese companies previously operating in Russia continue to operate there as ususal, despite sanctions and other restrictions. However, their number increased by 4 percentage points compared to the previous study, conducted from May to June last year.

In the meantime, 25.4% of surveyed companies said that they have completely stopped their activities in Russia, which is 9.2 percentage points more than in the previous survey. They referred to reputational risks and sanctions against Russia imposed by the Japanese government. At the same time, almost 35% of respondents reported a partial curtailment of their activities in Russia due to the same factors.

After the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, Japan introduced several packages of anti-Russian sanctions, in particular against individuals and legal entities, seized the assets of a number of banks, and introduced export restrictions.