Japanese Lawmaker Muneo Suzuki Holds Talks with Russian Officials in Moscow on Bilateral Relations

MOSCOW — Muneo Suzuki, a Japanese politician representing a constituency in Hokkaido, met senior Russian government officials in Moscow on Monday to advocate for warmer bilateral relations. Andrey Rudenko, Russia's deputy foreign minister in charge of Asian affairs, told Suzuki that Moscow would be willing to arrange such a meeting, South China Morning Post reported.

Suzuki, who returned to Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party in 2025 after 23 years as an independent member of the Diet, used the visit to relay messages from Tokyo. Russia's TASS news agency quoted him as telling his hosts that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was in favor of closer bilateral ties.

U.S. Administration's Moscow policy under then-President Joe Biden. In a meeting with Grigory Karasin, head of the Russian Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, Suzuki expressed a desire to revive past levels of cooperation. "I very much want to restore Japan-Russia relations to the state they were in under [former prime minister Shinzo] Abe and [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin," he said.

Suzuki reiterated his longstanding criticism of Japan's approach to Russia during the Biden administration. "I have consistently taken a negative view of the fact that Japan, at the request of Biden, has adopted cold ties with Russia," he told his Russian counterparts.

The meetings highlight ongoing efforts by some Japanese figures to mend relations strained by geopolitical tensions, though public and allied objections in Japan may complicate progress.