Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Archival photoMOSCOW, May 14th. While the US and Europe impose more and more sanctions on Russia over Ukraine, Japan is trying to capitalize on the current situation, writes Global Times columnist Chen Yangjun. «Japan's real strategic intentions are to achieve diplomatic breakthroughs both in domestic and foreign policy,” the author noted.Japan is exploring the possibility of partially classifying recommendations on national defense In the international direction, Tokyo, according to Yangjun, is striving to become not only an important economic player, but also a significant political force. To this end, the country's government actively advocates expanding the permanent membership of the UN Security Council, rightly believing that the right of veto (which Russia also has) is an important lever that prevents the West from imposing really effective sanctions against Moscow. The observer argues that in the internal The policy of the Japanese government is to justify the development of the military industry. Referring to the «unstable international situation», the Japanese authorities, together with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, hope to justify the desire to increase the country's defense spending to two percent of GDP (NATO standard). Russia launched a special operation in Ukraine on February 24. Russian President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.» According to the Ministry of Defense, as of March 25, the Russian Armed Forces completed the main tasks of the first stage of the special operation — they significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was the liberation of Donbass. On April 19, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced the start of the next phase of the special operation. Volnovakha, a strategically important regional center south of Donetsk, and Mariupol, the largest city on the coast of the Sea of Azov, have been liberated in the DPR. In the LPR, according to the Ministry of Defense, as of March 25, 93 percent of the former Luhansk region, within which a republic was proclaimed in 2014, had been liberated. >Japanese PM calls Russian sanctions «absolutely unacceptable»
