Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has voiced her country’s “consistent support” for the international criminal court (ICC), after Donald Trump urged member states to abandon the body, calling it “out of control”.
In her speech to the UN general assembly in New York on September 22, Takaichi said postwar Japan had “emphasised the rule of law in the resolution of all conÀicts” – a commitment she said was reÀected in its support for multilateral organisations such as the ICC.
Japan’s leader had faced pressure at home to publicly support the ICC, whose president, Tomoko Akane, is Japanese, after failing to come to its defence in response to Trump’s announcement in August that the US would impose sanctions targeting the entire organisation.
Trump intensi¿ed his criticism of the ICC in his speech to the general assembly.
“The United States is equally opposed to the out-of-control institution known as the international criminal court,” he said.
“I call on all nations that are members of the ICC to oႈ- cially resign from this rogue institution immediately.”
Takaichi avoided direct criticism of the US administration in her UN speech as she seeks to keep Washington on side amid rising tensions in the Asia-Paci¿c, including a commitment to support democratic Taiwan and address Chinese military activity in the South and East China Seas.
Takaichi’s most recent comments on the ICC come after a cross-party group of MPs in Japan urged her to demand that Trump withdraw the sanctions.
