Japan bans exports of additional industrial goods to Russia (HS 27/28/39/73/81/82/84/85/89/90 lines) and imports of Russian-origin non-industrial diamonds

Mechanism

The measure is issued under the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act. The Cabinet approved the Export Trade Control Order amendment on 5 April 2024 (implemented 17 April), and METI amended the implementing ordinances and notices on 10 April to name the specific controlled cargo. METI's own release says the scope follows the measures major partners had decided to take. The diamond import ban was carried by an amendment to the METI import notice, scheduled for 10 May 2024.

Goods named in the METI release include: automotive engine oil (HS 27), hydrogen chloride and aluminium hydroxide (HS 28), nitrocellulose (HS 39), line pipe for oil and gas transport (HS 73), rhenium ingots, scrap and powder (HS 81), electric hand tools and wood/cork/hard-rubber/hard-plastic working machinery (HS 84), lithium-ion and nickel-metal-hydride batteries (HS 85), microtomes and thermostats (HS 90), and certain vessels and offshore platforms (HS 89). The full cargo list is in the ordinances and notices, which the release refers exporters to. The scale of the covered list (GTA counts over 160 products) is a secondary-source figure and is not recorded as a magnitude here.

Downstream implications

• Tightens the Japanese leg of the G7 Russia industrial-goods embargo; the

named metals (tungsten, molybdenum, cobalt, zirconium, rhenium) sit in HS 81 lines.

• Diamond import ban aligns Japan with the G7 Russian-diamond restrictions.

Open questions

• Exact HS 81 tariff lines and total product count are in the ordinances

and notices, not in the METI press page; not verified here.