Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi on Tuesday expressed concerns about human rights abuses against Russian nationals in Japan, making reference to hate speech, harassment and other discriminatory acts that have occurred in the country since Moscow invaded Ukraine in late February.
"I would like to reiterate a call on the public not to ostracize or defame Russians just because they are Russians," Hayashi said at a news conference.
Condemning the aggression committed in Ukraine by Russian President Vladimir Putin's administration, Hayashi said even some Russian nationals in Japan are expressing opposition to the aggression.
The minister's remarks came just after an executive of East Japan Railway Co. apologized for temporarily covering with paper a wayfinding sign written in Russian at a Tokyo train station near the Russian Embassy in Japan earlier this month, after receiving criticism it could be considered discriminatory.
In late February, an inn in Shiga Prefecture said on its website it would "stop accepting any guests from Russia and Belarus" in protest against Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the support Moscow has received from Belarus, before being urged by local authorities to remove the statement.
Earlier Tuesday, members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party discussed the issue of human rights abuses against Russians at a party meeting.
Masahisa Sato, chief of the LDP Foreign Affairs Division, told reporters afterward that the government should take countermeasures.
"We must not equate Putin's administration with Russian people in Japan," Sato said at the outset of the meeting, adding he has heard that a Russian running a restaurant was abused on social media.
According to the Immigration Services Agency, about 9,000 Russians were living in the country as of June 2021.