October 9, 2025
TOKYO – Since the start of this year, Russia’s state-run media and diplomatic offices in Japan have drastically increased their output of content written in Japanese that criticizes Tokyo’s aid to Ukraine, according to analyses by the Japanese government.
The government is on alert, believing that Russia is waging information warfare to divide public opinion with the aim of getting Japan to reduce the aid.
Online news articles and posts on social media by the Japanese unit of Sputnik, a Russian state-run news agency, the Russian Embassy in Japan and other entities have rapidly increased since Jan. 20, according to sources familiar with the issue.
On that day, U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order suspending U.S. aid to foreign countries.
From May 2024 to April 2025, Russian entities released 185 pieces of content. Of them, 173, or more than 90%, were concentrated over about three months from Jan. 20.
On April 7, the Sputnik unit posted on X that Japan should “stop providing ODA” (official development assistance). On April 9, it posted that “all foreign aid programs should be halted and the money spent in Japan.”
The unit had repeatedly posted these and similar messages as if they were the opinions of Japanese nationals.
Accounts on X with favorable opinions toward Russia spread the posts.
In a post on Feb. 10, the news agency mentioned the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which had discontinued its foreign aid activities. The post referred to Trump’s insistence that USAID was a hotbed for bribery and a source of funds used to control the media.
The post also labeled the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as the Japanese version of USAID and implied that there was impropriety in the agency’s provision of aid to the Ukrainian public broadcasting.
A Japanese government source said, “They are skillful at manipulating public perceptions.”