Japan is likely to join US-led sanctions against Russia, including a ban on exports of chips and other key technology, if President Vladimir Putin orders an invasion of Ukraine, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The decision by Japan, the world's third-largest economy to join US allies and other G7 industrialized nations in threatening economic sanctions, comes as the crisis in Europe deepens, with Russia's leader on Monday. commanded troops to two breakaway territories in eastern Ukraine that Russia now recognizes as an independent state.
The technology export ban Japan is considering will be wider than the one imposed on Russia in 2014 after it occupied Crimea, with Tokyo also considering tougher restrictions on Russian banks, the Yomiuri said.
Government ministers were not immediately available for comment.
Japan has in the past taken a softer diplomatic approach to Russia than the United States, with successive Japanese leaders courting Putin in a bid to secure the return of islands occupied by Russian forces at the end of World War Two. Energy-poor Japan also buys gas from its neighbors.
More recently, however, Tokyo has become concerned about Russia's revival of military activity in East Asia and Moscow's deep security cooperation with neighboring China.
Although Japan is no longer a major exporter of semiconductors, with only 10% of the global chip market share, it is a major producer of specialty electronic components, such as automotive chips and image sensors, and dominates in other areas of industry, such as high-tech manufacturing equipment.
