Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Motegi held telephone talks on Friday night with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and International Criminal Court President Tomoko Akane, Kyodo News reported, hours after the Trump administration moved to place the entire Hague-based court on the U.S. Treasury’s sanctions list.

The calls thrust Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government into a familiar bind: defending a Japanese national who leads the ICC while preserving the alliance with Washington, which funds much of Japan’s defence and underwrites extended deterrence in East Asia.

What Washington did

President Donald Trump’s administration ordered the Treasury Department on Friday to add the ICC to its Specially Designated Nationals list, a step beyond earlier sanctions that targeted individual judges including Akane, a former Japanese diplomat elected court president in 2025.

The designation would penalise banks, insurers and technology vendors that continue routine business with the court, potentially complicating everything from witness protection payments to office leases in The Hague. European allies issued a joint statement saying they “strongly disagree” with the move, while Japan had yet to publish a full government response as of Saturday morning in Tokyo.

Tokyo’s dual calls

Kyodo’s breaking-news alert said Motegi spoke first with Rubio and later with Akane, though the foreign ministry did not immediately release readouts in English. Japanese officials have previously criticised U.S. sanctions on ICC personnel as undermining a tribunal Japan helped create, yet they rarely confront Washington publicly on security matters.

Akane’s nationality makes the dispute personal for Japanese voters who pride themselves on contributions to multilateral institutions. It also intersects with Takaichi’s effort to show steadiness after a turbulent start that included farm-minister reprimands and debates over U.S. base burdens in Okinawa.

Alliance calculations

Rubio’s State Department has paired pressure on the ICC with active diplomacy on Ukraine and the Middle East, areas where Japan has pledged financial and political support. Any clash over sanctions could spill into discussions about defence exports, intelligence sharing and Japan’s own plans to raise spending above 2% of gross domestic product.

Opposition lawmakers are likely to press Takaichi in the Diet on whether Tokyo will join European Union talk of counter-measures to shield the court. The prime minister has emphasised rule-of-law rhetoric since taking office, but her party also values uninterrupted access to Trump for trade and security files.

What comes next

The foreign ministry is expected to release a formal statement after Motegi debriefs Takaichi and Chief Cabinet Secretary officials. Japanese banks, meanwhile, will review compliance programmes to avoid accidental transactions with ICC accounts.

For Akane, the calls with Motegi may focus on practical support—legal assistance, witness safety and diplomatic backing at the U.N.—rather than public condemnation of Washington. The court said in a statement that its future “now rests also in the hands of the states that created it,” a message aimed squarely at capitals like Tokyo that still fund its budget.