Japan took a side of the US and the EU

After the Malaysian airplane crash, the US and the EU took further economic sanctions on Russia. As a result, Russia now has started to switch the direction from Europe to some Asian countries, especially China and Japan.

In order to export its products to Asia, Putin was supposed to visit Japan this autumn; however, the Japanese government announced today that it will carry out economic sanctions on Russia and Ukraine, which makes unclear whether Putin will really visit or not.

In my opinion, there is no doubt that Russia will either have better relations with China or suffer from the severe sanctions imposed by the Western countries. And I do think that Japan took the better choice:going against Russia, but at the same time, the Japanese government has to be aware that it should not impose too restrictive penalties to Russia.

Japan imports abundant natural gas from Russia and still has territory issues of islands with the country. Therefore, in my opinion, keeping as much neutral  position between Russia and the Western countries as possible will be the primary task for Japan.