Tokyo should lead ICC reform, not just defend it

The International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. Japan should support the ICC while leading reforms that strengthen its legitimacy. | REUTERS

By Masahiro Matsumura
Contributing writer

Oct 29, 2026

The Trump administration’s decision to impose sanctions not only on individual International Criminal Court officials but also on the ICC itself has created a dilemma for Japan. Tokyo has long championed the rule of law in international affairs. At the same time, its national security depends on close cooperation with the United States. If the ICC becomes a sharper political fault line, Japan may find itself pressured to choose between legal principle and strategic necessity.

That is why Japan should move beyond declaratory support for the ICC and lead efforts to reform how the court operates. Tokyo should continue to support the court’s survival, but it should also use its weight within the Assembly of States Parties to promote reforms that make the ICC more restrained, credible and sustainable.

This is the most realistic course for three reasons. First, fatally weakening the ICC would widen impunity for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Second, some U.S. concerns are not groundless, but they can be addressed through reform rather than destruction. Third, in today’s era of power transition, the rule of law cannot survive as rhetoric alone. Unless institutions are viewed as legitimate and disciplined in practice, legal ideals themselves will become hollow.

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