TOKYO 

The Japanese government on Thursday froze the assets of Russia's largest financial institution, Sberbank, and Alfa Bank, its largest private bank, due to the Russian war on Ukraine. 

Japan decided to impose new economic sanctions on Russia following an online meeting of G7 leaders Sunday.

Japanese citizens and companies are also now prohibited from making investments in Russia that would provide them with a stake of 10% or more.

Providing loans to Russian companies with a repayment term of over one year is also forbidden.

Meanwhile, the assets of 141 people, including Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, were also frozen.

On Tuesday, Japanese Trade and Industry Minister Koichi Hagiuda was quoted as saying by the TASS news agency that his country plans to gradually reduce its reliance on oil imports from Russia.

Hagiuda’s comments came after G7 countries said Sunday that dependence on Russian energy resources would be reduced slowly to cripple Russia’s oil trade.

*Writing by Jeyhun Aliyev from Ankara, Turkiye