Russia expulses from Japan amid Ukraine war

Eight Russian officials left the country on Wednesday after being expelled from Japan earlier in the month on accusations of espionage.

As Moscow's war against Ukraine continues, the eight accused of spying on Japan left Haneda Airport with their families on a chartered plane arranged by the Russian government.

One of the eight are diplomats and staffers who worked at the Russian Embassy in Tokyo, as well as officials from the Office of the Trade Representative of Russia in Japan. The ousted group is believed to be responsible for intelligence-gathering in Japan and included several mid-rank government officials that the Japanese police had been watching. Ambassador Mikhail Garuzin was not among them.

The expulsion of the group was announced on April 8 following reports of massacres by Russian soldiers near Kyiv. It marks the first time Japan has expelled a group of diplomats since World War II.

Japan joined the U.S. and several European countries with the expulsion of Russian diplomats following Moscow's invasion of its neighbor. Poland, which shares a border with Ukraine, has expelled 45 spies pretending to be diplomats, according to the nation's foreign and interior ministries.

The Russian side has dismissed the accusations as baseless and is expected to take countermeasures.

The Japanese government is moving to tighten economic sanctions on Russia.

The bill passed on Wednesday during a plenary session at the Upper House that amends a law on tariffs, allowing the country to join Western nations in revoking Russia's most favorable nation status.

The bill will result in a rise in tariffs for Russian fish and seafood until the end of March 2023 under a Cabinet order that will be issued based on the revised law.

The United Kingdom, the EU and the United States have already announced similar moves following a Group of Seven leaders statement last Friday, which said that the nations would do their utmost to deny preferred trade status to Russia.

A revised foreign exchange and trade law is aimed at preventing the misuse of virtual currency as a sanctions loophole. The amendments will require exchanging virtual currency to third-party accounts to prove that they were not sent to a sanctioned party.

Importance from Russia will be subject to higher tariffs once the most favorable nation status is revoked. Since the tariff rate was set at zero even before Russia received preferential status, the bill will not affect imports of crude oil, liquefied natural gas, and palladium, a rare metal. Russia is one of the world's largest suppliers of palladium, nickel, aluminum, steel and copper.

Japan is planning to expand its list of banned exports to Russia, including luxury items, and to freeze the assets of more Russians.