JAPAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Eiji Kobayashi, Masaki Fujita, Suguru Yokoi and Ryusuke Bushimata, Anderson Mori & Tomotsune
3. Recent and Future Legal Developments 3.1 Significant Court Decisions or Legal Developments The first criminal conviction in relation to sanctions against Russia was handed down in 2024; however, no other significant court decision or legal develop - ment has been observed over the past three years. As a minor development, in 2022, sanctions legislation was amended twice to bring transactions involving cryptocurrency and electronic settlements under the
METI has also issued a guideline on the potential granting of approval in relation to the Russia-related export ban. For example, METI may consider approv - ing exports when goods are exported to a Russian company wholly owned by a Japanese company, or companies with US, European or South Korean own - ers. It should be noted that METI cannot otherwise grant approvals in such cases, and doing so will depend on the situation. In the case of sanctions against Russia, the provision of some services, such as auditing and engineering services, to a Russian company is exempted from per - mission when the services are rendered to a Russian From the perspective of the sanctions regime, it may technically be possible to prohibit the provision of legal services, but no such direct prohibition is in place in relation to any country as of 20 June 2025. However, if legal services fall under the category of management consulting services, which are prohib - ited from being provided to Russian entities (except when providing said services to a subsidiary of a Japanese resident entity), the provision of such legal services may be subject to sanctions. 2.4 Reporting Under the sanctions regime, no legal obligation of reporting is created. The MOF has issued a compliance guideline to finan - cial institutions and payment operators, instructing them to report to the MOF when they detect a viola - tion of financial sanctions. subsidiary of a Japanese resident. 2.3.2 Provision of Legal Services From a practical point of view, those who have breached sanctions are recommended to report their breach to the competent authorities immediately.
scope of financial sanctions. 3.2 Future Developments
No pending court cases on sanctions, or cases with particular issues related to the sanctions regulations, have been published in publicly available legal sourc - es.
4. Delisting Challenges 4.1 Process General
Measures related to financial sanctions and trade sanctions are established by administrative orders in the form of public notices issued by the MOF and METI, respectively. However, a sanctions designation is made by administrative orders in the form of public notices issued by MOFA in relation to both financial sanctions and trade sanctions. Technically, a sanctions designation as an administra - tive disposition may be challenged in two ways: • by administrative review, which is a request made to MOFA for the review of a designation under the Administrative Complaint Review Act; and • by judicial review, in the form of a motion to revoke the impugned designation, which is made under the Administrative Case Litigation Act. In principle, a motion for revocation can be filed imme - diately without going through the process of adminis - trative review. In the case of a sanctions designation set out under the Foreign Exchange Act, a person to
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