TOKYO : Japan will extend an export ban on luxury cars to Russia from next month so that it will cover all new and used vehicles over 1900 cc, the government said on Friday, as it further steps up sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
The wider ban will become effective Aug. 9, and will likely curb Japan’s second-hand car exports to Russia, which have surged since the start of the conflict due to high demand for reliable and durable vehicles.
The Japanese cabinet decided to revise an export control order that bans the exports of goods to Russia that strengthen the country’s industrial base, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura told reporters.
“With that, the export to Russia of automobiles over 1900 cc, hybrid engine passenger cars and large vehicle tires and so on will be banned from August 9,” Nishimura said.
The expanded ban also includes hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles, the government said.
It will disclose exact details on affected items a week before it will go into effect, a trade ministry official said.
Japan’s wider export ban on cars puts it in line with the European Union, which announced its own banon 1900-cc vehicles on June 23.
In 2022, Japanese exports to Russia of second-hand vehicles of over 2000 cc to 3000 more than tripled compared to a year earlier, coming in at some 29 billion yen ($208 million), data from the finance ministry’s customs bureau showed.
Such Russia-bound exports stood at almost 15 billion yen in the first half of this year, the data showed.
Japan originally implemented its ban on exporting luxury vehicles worth more than 6 million yen to Russia in April last year. It added a prohibition on the export of trucks weighing 5 tonnes or more to that in June of that year.
($1 = 139.7200 yen)
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