The Trump administration announced in August that it would add Tomoko Akane, president of the International Criminal Court, to its list of sanctioned individuals. The court had issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Washington has pushed back hard on the ICC, including over its investigations of war crimes by US soldiers, and the sanctions on Akane are widely seen as retaliation.
Akane, a former prosecutor, became an ICC judge in 2018 after the Justice Ministry approached her about standing in the court's judicial elections. In March 2024 she was elected the court's president, the first Japanese to hold the post.
Japan has not publicly confronted Washington over the sanctions on its own national. The source material gives no account of any statement or position from the Japanese government.
A book, and a motto
Nanami Torishima edited Akane's book, "Fighting War Crimes: The International Criminal Court Will Not Yield" (Bunshun Shinsho), published in June last year. Torishima describes someone who does not turn pessimistic even in severe circumstances, and who does not give up.
When Torishima was preparing the book's promotional band and asked Akane what wording to use, Akane asked for the catchphrase "never give up." Torishima recalled her saying that everyone inside the court says it to each other, so the words should be used.
“The ICC will never lose. Justice will and should prevail. I will hold to that conviction.”Tomoko Akane, ICC president, in a media interview
Torishima said the phrase gave the editing team courage, and that it now looks as though Akane saw the present situation coming. Akane has kept to it since the sanctions were imposed on her.
Wanted in Russia
Russia has also placed Akane on a wanted list. She wrote in the book that she took the news calmly, thinking, "So it has finally come," as she watched it on television.
“My daily life did not change right away. Even after I learned of it on NHK's news, I spent my holiday in Japan without much tension, and at a university reunion people teased me, 'Oh, the wanted fugitive has arrived.'”Tomoko Akane, writing in her book
Torishima writes that Akane was somewhat more sensitive to the unsettling moves that preceded the US sanctions.
The month before, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on ICC member states to withdraw and argued for dismantling the court.