Japanese business will not withdraw from hydrocarbon projects in Russia. Bloomberg writes about this in reference to Japanese government circles.
Resource-poor Japan is very dependent on hydrocarbon supplies from Russia. Last year, Russia accounted for almost 4% of crude oil supplies and 9% of liquefied gas supplies to Japan.
Moreover, contracts for the annual supply of almost 5 million tons of Russian LNG have already been concluded with Japanese buyers until the early 2030s. The rupture of these contracts threatens with gigantic fines.
Japanese business is directly involved in the extraction and processing of Russian raw materials.
The Mitsui Bussan and Mitsubishi Group corporations together own 22.5% of the Sakhalin-2 project. The main shareholder is Gazprom.
In Yamal, 10% of the Arctic LNG-2 plant under construction belongs to the Japanese consortium Japan Arctic LNG. Moreover, it is important that 75% in the consortium belongs not to private, but to the state corporation JOGMEC.
The projects in Russia were financed by the Japanese banking corporation Sumitomo Mitsui and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).
Besides, the Japanese transport company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines is engaged in tanker transportation of Russian LNG from the Arctic.
In general, the Japanese supported Western sanctions against Russia (not to quarrel with the US), and at the same time will do business with Russia.
What is it – business pragmatism or double standards, let everyone decide for themselves.