TOKYO, October 3. /TASS/. Muneo Suzuki, a member of the Japanese House of Councilors, maintained his position that keeping a dialogue with Moscow was important even after he was criticized in Japan, including by his own party, for sympathizing with Russia.
"My visit to Moscow caused a stir in Japan, but I am proud to be the one politician who thinks Japan-Russia relations are important in terms of our national interest. I think dialogue is important these days," he wrote on his blog.
Suzuki said he arrived in Moscow on the evening of October 1. The next day, he met with Sergey Glazyev, Minister in charge of Integration and Macroeconomics of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko, as well as Deputy Foreign Minister and former ambassador to Tokyo Mikhail Galuzin. The lawmaker is scheduled to meet with Federation Council Deputy Speaker Konstantin Kosachev on October 3. Suzuki promised to provide details about the trip when he returns to Japan.
Mixed reaction in Japan
Suzuki became the first Japanese lawmaker to visit Russia since February 2022. His decision was met with a mixed reaction in Japan. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno recalled the government's warning that Japanese citizens not visit Russia, regardless of the purpose of the trip. He noted that the government had not received any notification from Suzuki about his intention to visit Moscow.
The Japan Innovation Party, which Suzuki is a member of, said it could take disciplinary action against him since he did not inform the party leadership either. Suzuki wrote this off as an administrative oversight in comments to local media. Toshimitsu Motegi, secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), as well as Natsuo Yamaguchi, head of the Komeito Party, which is in coalition with the LDP, called Suzuki's trip to Russia undesirable.
On October 2, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported that Deputy Foreign Minister Rudenko met with Suzuki and discussed the state of Russian-Japanese relations. According to the report, the Russian side noted "the important contribution of the Japanese deputy to the development of bilateral ties." Meanwhile, the Russian ministry regretfully noted that the "decades-old accumulated wealth of interstate cooperation is being purposefully destroyed by the sanctions policy of official Tokyo just to please the US and the anti-Russian course of the collective West imposed by it,", which, the ministry said, "does not meet the national interests of Japan or the aspirations of the Japanese people."
The former prime minister's informal adviser to the late former prime minister Abe on Japan
Suzuki is known for his ties to Russia. He served as an advisor on various issues related to cooperation with Russia during the tenure of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. In April, he had already considered traveling to Russia and even received approval from the steering committee of the House of Councilors (Japan's upper house of parliament), but then the chairman of the Japan Innovation Party asked him to make a decision about visiting Russia based on "a comprehensive consideration of whether the visit would have a negative impact on national interests." As a result, Suzuki postponed the trip.
After the start of Russia's special military operation, Suzuki repeatedly criticized the actions of Western countries and Ukraine. In an interview with TASS, he expressed the opinion that Japan is too closely aligned with the United States and NATO on policy toward Russia, with whom cooperation is vital for Tokyo. He admitted that this opinion is now unpopular in Japan, but noted that even in the administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida there are people who sympathize with it. Although, they remain in the minority.