Emperor Naruhito of Japan approved the new composition of the government, during a solemn ceremony in his palace in Tokyo on August 10, handing each minister a notice of his appointment with the monarch's own signature.
The imperial blessing in the Land of the Rising Sun, which traditionally attaches great importance to rituals, has completed the process of forming a new cabinet, initiated by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
The previous Japanese government was less than a year old, having taken the oath last fall, and will go down in history as the most anti-Russian since the end of World War II - and at the same time, almost the most helpless.
An NHK poll conducted in early August showed that the popularity rating of Kishida's cabinet, which first took the oath of office in October last year, hit an all-time low of 46%.
As it turned out, 35% of the Japanese do not expect any positive changes, while 28% agreed to admit that the government is unable to implement the tasks.
However, Fumio Kishida himself, who, unlike Boris Johnson or Mario Draghi, is not going to retire and even came up with a whole development strategy with the intriguing name "new capitalism", does not consider himself a loser at all.
So he decided to make a knight's move - not to leave himself, but to shake up his office.
In the hope that the reshuffle of ministers will change the amount of their good deeds, which are still almost invisible.
Even a cursory glance at the composition of the updated Japanese government is enough to draw the main conclusion: there has been no personnel revolution in Tokyo.
Fumio Kishida's hard line towards Russia after the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine will remain the same.
This was confirmed by the reappointment of Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, who, together with Prime Minister Kishida, has worked hard in recent months to destroy the foundation of Russian-Japanese relations, which his predecessors built with considerable difficulty for decades.
Tokyo's top priorities will remain increasing defense spending, expanding the Japan-US alliance, and actively participating in the QUAD and AUKUS alliances devised in Washington to contain China.
Almost a century and a half after the 1891 incident in the Japanese city of Otsu, when a local policeman suddenly delivered two glancing blows with a saber to the 22-year-old heir to the Russian throne, Tsarevich Nikolai (after which the expression “Japanese policeman” appeared), “Japanese policemen” in Tokyo we see entire cabinet.
In the war of sanctions with Russia, everyone is ready to draw their saber - the samurai spirit of the policeman Tsuda Sanzo, who made an unsuccessful attempt on Nikolai, turned out to be indestructible.
The most striking thing in the case of the new Japanese cabinet is that, without any intention of changing its anti-Russian policy, the inertia of which forces the introduction of more and more new sanctions, Prime Minister Kishida retained the post of minister responsible for economic cooperation with Russia in the renewed government.
They became the former Minister of Economic Development Yasutoshi Nishimura, who headed the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
Thus, Japan remains the only country in the Western coalition that is actively waging a sanctions war, but at the same time considers it possible for itself to have an entire minister in the government responsible for cooperation with Russia.
It looks like some kind of surrealism, but there is still such a minister in Tokyo - they did not abolish his position.
The question arises: why?
One of the priorities of the new government is the provision of energy security, shaken in the first half of this year.
And winter is ahead.
Meanwhile, it turned out to be physically impossible to quickly resolve the issue of diversifying supplies from the US and Australia, while Russia accounts for 8.8% of Japanese imports of liquefied natural gas.
In this situation, the Japanese side, demonstrating the fighting spirit of the samurai in the war of sanctions, somehow turns its tail between its legs and begins to speak softly and insinuatingly when it comes to its participation in the Sakhalin-2 and Sakhalin-1 projects - no one refuses them doesn't intend to.
On the eve of its reorganization, the government called on Mitsui and Mitsubishi to maintain their stakes in the Sakhalin-2 project after the Russian government decided on August 3 to create a new operator for the project, Sakhalin Energy LLC.
Recall that in the defunct former operator Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd.
Japanese Mitsui and Mitsubishi owned 12.5 and 10% shares.
The change of the project operator became inevitable after the signing of the decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin on special economic measures in the fuel and energy sector in connection with the unfriendly actions of foreign states.
Within a month after August 3, foreign companies participating in the project will have to declare whether they agree to accept the same stake in the new operator.
After that, the Russian government will make a final decision within three days whether to transfer their shares to them or refuse them (untransferred shares will be sold, and foreigners will receive the proceeds on a special account).
Previously, the Japanese authorities have repeatedly stated the key importance of Sakhalin-2, from which the country receives almost all of Russian LNG (supplies from Sakhalin-2 provide energy equivalent to that which seven nuclear reactors are capable of producing).
In addition, Japan expects to maintain its presence in the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project after the decree of the Russian president published on August 5 to ban transactions with shares owned by unfriendly countries until the end of 2022 (in the Sakhalin-1 project, the Japanese company Sodeco owns 30% ).
“To refuse Russian gas would mean for the Japanese to cut the branch on which they sit.
Given the upward trend in energy prices in the world, it is extremely difficult to expect Tokyo to take such drastic steps as refusing to purchase Russian gas.
There are simply no alternative sources with which Japan could replace Russian gas.
No one else will sell gas at comparable stable prices,” Valery Kistanov, head of the Center for Japanese Studies at the Institute of China and Modern Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences, commented on the emerging conflict to Interfax.
This is the Japanese anomaly that we have.
While at war with Russia, the Japanese ministers believe that they will be able to cooperate with Russia.
In cases where they want it.
At the same time, they are unlikely to know the Russian sayings “Do not spit in the well” and “As it comes around, it will respond.”
In a word, Japanese policemen.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.