Russia has taken control of four factories belonging to Japan Tobacco. President Vladimir Putin has decided that the company’s Russian assets are to be placed under temporary local administration. The Wall Street Journal reports.
The decision comes after relations between the countries deteriorated sharply as a result of Japan’s support for Ukraine. Russia has also arrested a Japanese journalist suspected of espionage and conducted military exercises near the disputed Kuril Islands.
Japan Tobacco, which was just under 38 percent owned by the Japanese state at the end of 2025, has nearly 40 percent of the Russian tobacco market. Russia accounts for around one-quarter of the group’s profit. According to analysts at Jefferies, exclusion from the Russian market would mean that the company loses one of its largest operations.
In 2023, Ukraine designated Japan Tobacco as a sponsor of Russia’s war, citing the company’s tax payments, which amounted to 1.4 percent of Russia’s federal budget revenues in 2020.
Russia expert James Brown believes that Japan should consider tougher diplomatic countermeasures and warn of increased military support for Ukraine, including air-defense missiles, in response to further Russian actions.
