Japanese trading giant Itochu’s surprise announcement on February 5 that it was terminating its agreement with Israeli defense company Elbit Systems sent shockwaves through the Japanese business world. Itochu said specifically that they based their decision on the International Court of Justice’s ruling that Israel could commit genocide in Gaza, and on the Japanese government’s position that the ICJ ruling must be implemented “in good faith.” “.
Itochu counts; it is a well-known name in Japan, being the third largest trading company and one of the titans of the country’s economy with a turnover of over $104 billion in 2023. Top trading companies Both Itochu and Itochu are also politically important, as they are historically seen as the captains of Japan’s trade-based economy. Itochu’s decision sends a very clear message about the acceptability of doing business with Israel.
The decision places Itochu in a different category from the many Western states and companies that have either ignored the ICJ decision or denigrated genocide accusations as “baseless.” The governments of the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany, to name a few, have continued to flood Israel with weapons and political support to continue the wanton slaughter of civilians. innocent, in flagrant violation of the ICJ’s preliminary ruling. Some Western governments have begun to walk away from their support, but words are rare and the flow of weapons continues.
Indeed, these governments have taken their criminal complicity to a new level, defunding UNRWA, the main UN agency serving Palestinian refugees, on the basis of arguably spurious Israeli accusations that a A handful of the organization’s 13,000 employees may have been involved in the October 7 attacks on Israel. One can’t help but wonder about the timing of the “dubious case” that Israel submitted to its Western accomplices, literally hours after the ICJ issued its ruling that Israel was plausibly committing genocide.
Always receptive to Israeli discourse, the docile Western media duly highlighted UNRWA’s supposed involvement in terrorism, while virtually ignoring the ICJ’s decision. Withdrawing funding from UNRWA will almost inevitably lead to starvation among the more than 85 percent of Palestinians displaced in Gaza – a classic example of the “deliberate imposition of living conditions calculated to bring about the physical destruction” of a group ethnic, what is considered an ethnic group. act of genocide under international law.
Generally speaking, Japan is not a staunch defender of Palestinian rights – indeed, the country joined its Western allies in stopping funding to UNRWA – nor of human rights in general. Itochu, for its part, is one of the first Japanese companies to initiate human rights-based due diligence in its business operations (a process that clearly failed when it signed a deal with Elbit).
However, in recent years, Japanese companies have become increasingly responsive to public opinion on human rights and environmental issues. The failure of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics left behind a legacy of waste of public funds and corruption, but it at least served as a catalyst for Japanese companies to adopt the United Nations Guiding Principles for Business and human rights (which stipulate that businesses have a responsibility to respect international human rights). rights standards) more seriously. This is not to say that Japanese companies are necessarily better than their Western counterparts – they are not – but in this case, the protests outside the Itochu headquarters in Tokyo and the popular boycott of the owned convenience store in Itochu The Family Mart chain in Muslim countries like Malaysia has clearly pushed the company beyond the limits.
According to Itochu, the deal with Elbit was to provide equipment for the Japanese military, not to provide Japanese technology or weapons to Israel (Itochu also said it reached a deal with Elbit based on a request of the Japanese government – a claim implausibly denied by the authorities). Assuming this is true, it makes the severing of ties even more significant. Itochu essentially accepted that doing business with Israeli military companies ipso facto results in complicity in the Israeli genocide. It logically follows that relationships with companies – Israeli or not – involved in other Israeli violations of international law should also end. This is exactly what the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign is rightly calling for, to hold the apartheid state to account for its crimes.
Itochu’s decision is surely a harbinger of Israel’s growing isolation. The Western world has long been the main frontline of the BDS movement and Israeli attempts to suppress it. Developments in Japan show, if there was any doubt, that BDS has truly gone global.
Itochu’s decision could also have repercussions well beyond Palestine, since Japanese remilitarization has long been an integral part of U.S. grand strategy in East Asia. After World War II, Japan adopted a pacifist constitution that prohibited the use of force to resolve international disputes. However, U.S. pressure on Japan to play a greater military role in Asia has increased in recent years, as Americans become increasingly concerned about Chinese challenges to U.S. hegemony.
What had previously been a cautious Japanese approach changed dramatically in 2012, with the arrival of ultranationalist Shinzo Abe as prime minister. With little or no respect for public opinion, Abe has rammed through extremely controversial bills and policies aimed at remilitarization, including giving the military much greater latitude to fight in concert with the allied (read: American) forces, even outside of Japan. Arms exports and international joint development, long taboo, became a government priority overnight. Japan has also proactively entered into alliances overtly aimed at keeping China in its place in the international hierarchy, such as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue. Abe ultimately resigned in 2020, but the overall leadership remained the same, and in 2022 the government jumped on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to push forward a near doubling of the military budget.
From the outset, stronger relations with Israel were integral to Japan’s greater integration into the U.S. military alliance. Arab countries’ heavy dependence on oil had made Palestine a traditionally sensitive subject for Japanese foreign policy, but Abe abandoned all inhibitions, visited Israel in 2015 and openly pushed forward trade and defense deals with the country. Murky reports of joint weapons development with Israel quickly surfaced, only to be quickly denied. Pro-Israel articles have appeared in conservative media, including those praising Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s supposed manhood as a courageous man defending his country.
The government has also embarked on a campaign to encourage businesses to strike deals with Israel. Local chambers of commerce were strongly “encouraged” to travel to Israel and forge partnerships. I personally received many calls from large Japanese companies who were feeling official pressure, but who were nevertheless aware of the reputational risk of doing business with Israeli companies involved in the colonization of Palestine. They would beg me to point them to a “clean” Israeli company they could do business with without being targeted by the BDS movement. Of course, I had to tell them that it didn’t exist: the entire Israeli economy is built on the oppression of the Palestinian people and the theft of their land. Many companies eventually gave in to government pressure, but it’s a safe bet that they are now urgently reviewing their portfolios. Itochu’s decision to cut ties with Elbit Systems could mark the start of a new trend and a major step backwards in Japan’s remilitarization and full integration into the US anti-China military grouping in East Asia .
Itochu’s decision should be welcomed and the BDS movement should continue its boycott of companies complicit in Israel’s abuses. There is, however, a limit to what can be expected of private businesses, which ultimately exist to maximize profits. It is governments that shape the rules of the game for businesses, through laws and regulations. Governments must ensure that companies respect human rights and punish them if they go bankrupt. In particular, Western governments (and Japan) must stop shamelessly supporting Israeli apartheid and genocide and ensure that businesses in their jurisdictions do the same. This is the only way to salvage the last vestiges of their fading credibility.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.
