Japan pulls out Ukraine embassy staff as 'risk significantly increasing'

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – Japan on Monday announced it will “temporarily move out” all staff members from its embassy in Ukraine.

Citing security reasons as Russia’s war on Ukraine intensifies, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said “officials who were originally working in Kyiv will leave from Japan’s liaison office in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv,” Kyodo News reported.

“The situation in Ukraine is becoming more tense and the risk is significantly increasing also in Lviv,” the ministry said.

The liaison office in Lviv, near the border with Poland, will not be closed down and operations will resume “once the situation calms down,” it added.

- Japanese firms exit Russia

As Tokyo has joined Western allies in imposing sanctions on Moscow, Japanese automakers are moving to bring back employees from Russia.

Toyota announced it is in the process of “evacuating around 30 employees and their 20 family members,” saying the decision was taken “on the advice of the Japanese government and the situation of local businesses,” according to another Kyodo News report.

Nissan, Subaru and Mitsubishi have “also made similar arrangements,” while Japanese telecom company KDDI Corporation said it also “plans to evacuate employees from Russia,” the report added.

Nissan also announced it will halt production in Russia, days after Toyota took a similar step by suspending operations in St. Petersburg “due to supply chain disruptions.”

According to Japanese research company Teikoku Databank, a total of 347 Japanese companies were working in Russia as of February.

Some 45% of them were carmakers and other manufacturers, while wholesalers, including trading houses, accounted for 25%, and services and financial sectors made up 10% each, the data showed.