OREANDA-NEWS  The Japanese authorities reacted to the news that Tokyo allegedly refused the proposal of the European Union authorities to expropriate frozen assets of Russia. This was reported by TASS with reference to the Kyodo news agency.

Commenting on this information, the Japanese Ministry of Finance stated that it completely denies the authenticity of such information.

Information that Japan did not agree with the initiatives of the European Union was published by Politico, which referred to Japanese diplomats. According to the latter, Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama allegedly stated that her country could not use Russian assets of about $30 billion frozen on its territory to lend to Ukraine. Legal difficulties were cited as the reason.

In early November, Secretary General of the Japanese Cabinet Minoru Kihara said that Tokyo would decide on new anti-Russian sanctions based on its national interests.