Japan Exempted from Russian Countermeasures: Russian-Japanese Partnership Reaffirmed

... However, when the global financial meltdown prevailed in 2008, the West was quick to initiate a new G-20 forum. The naissance of G20 was driven by a political imperative: to maintain the competitiveness of Western firms, the West needed to make sure that ... ... adopt the same global regulations.[5] In the same vein, recent American pressure on the EU to adopt a tougher sanction scheme on Russia was also economically motivated to keep the competitiveness of American firms. Now, Japan stands alone outside the Russian countermeasure scheme, thus, the West will take every possible measure to minimize the ...