Japan follows U.S. sanctions, urges local banks to freeze accounts of Lam Cheng and others

The South China Morning Post quoted a Japanese Diet member on Dec. 10 as saying that the Japanese government complied with a U.S. sanctions ban that required Japanese banks with U.S. operations to freeze the accounts of Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam and others in that country or not approve them to open accounts in Japan.

Representative Hitoshi Matsubara of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan said, “I believe this move will anger the Chinese Communist Party. He said the sanctions arrangement also covers 10 other Chinese and Hong Kong officials who were sanctioned by the U.S. in August this year. Former Hong Kong legislator Au Nok-hin, who is familiar with the Japanese language, said the Japanese government’s reply was “no comment on individual cases”, but that it would require financial institutions with bases in foreign countries to formulate policies in accordance with foreign regulations, and to comply more strictly.

The report said the Japanese government disclosed the matter on Tuesday in response to a written question from Matsubara Hitoshi, and that the practice would disallow any transactions by Carrie Lam in Japan. The newspaper quoted Matsubara as saying that Japanese banks should not handle transactions for her even if they are not in U.S. jurisdictions, which makes it difficult for people to buy property in Japan. He said the sanctions arrangement also covers 10 other Chinese and Hong Kong officials who were sanctioned by the U.S. in August, a move that is believed to cause members of the Chinese Communist Party to withdraw their assets from Japan.

The Japanese government’s statement reportedly noted that “the Japanese government has asked Japanese financial institutions with overseas offices to consider (U.S.) sanctions laws and regulations.” But the statement did not mention restrictions on travel to Japan. According to Hitoshi Matsubara, most Japanese people are also quite sympathetic to the democracy-seeking people of Hong Kong, and believe that the Japanese government should help Hong Kong people by publicly criticizing Beijing.