What Did Japan Say for Two Years on a Security Council Where the Aggressor Holds a Veto?

The United Nations Security Council is the body that, under the UN Charter, bears primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security. It is made up of five permanent members and ten elected non-permanent members, and, except on procedural matters, no decision can be adopted if even one permanent member votes against it (per the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ explanation, and Article 27 of the UN Charter). This is the so-called veto.

In Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022, the aggressor state itself was a permanent member holding this veto. Japan was elected a non-permanent member shortly afterward and served on the Council from January 2023 to December 2024. What could, and could not, the Security Council decide about Ukraine? This article follows the record chronologically, drawing on UN and Ministry of Foreign Affairs materials.

February 25, 2022: Russia Vetoes a Resolution Against Itself

According to UN News, on February 25, 2022 (New York time), the Security Council voted on a draft resolution calling on Russia to immediately halt its attack and withdraw all its forces. Of the 15 members, 11 voted in favor, China, India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) abstained, and only Russia voted against. With a permanent member opposed, the draft resolution failed. UN News reports that the United States had taken part in drafting this resolution.

UN News reports that, at this meeting, Ukraine’s Ambassador to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya, pointed out that, under the rules of procedure, Russia’s ambassador should not have presided as chair of a meeting concerning his own country as agenda item.

Two days later, on February 27, the Security Council decided, 11 in favor, 1 against (Russia), 3 abstentions (China, India, UAE), to convene an emergency special session of the General Assembly, in which all 193 member states take part. According to UN News, because this was a procedural matter, the permanent members’ veto could not be used.

Using the Veto Means Explaining Yourself to the General Assembly

On April 26, 2022, the General Assembly adopted, without a vote (by consensus), a resolution providing that whenever a veto is cast in the Security Council, the General Assembly will automatically convene a meeting within ten working days. According to UN News, the draft resolution was submitted by Liechtenstein on behalf of 83 co-sponsoring countries. It does not restrict the veto itself, but a country that uses it must now answer for its reasons before all 193 members.

September 30, 2022: A Resolution on “Annexation” Also Vetoed

On September 30 of the same year, Russia unilaterally declared the “annexation” of four regions of Ukraine. According to UN News, that same day the Security Council voted on a draft resolution, put forward by the United States and Albania, that would have called this attempt a threat to international peace and security and demanded the immediate and unconditional reversal of the decision. Ten members voted in favor, Russia voted against, and Brazil, China, Gabon and India abstained. Russia’s veto meant this draft resolution, too, failed to pass. Under the April resolution, the General Assembly then had to convene a meeting on this veto.

The Day Japan Was Elected to the Council

Japan was elected a non-permanent member at the UN General Assembly on June 9, 2022 (New York time), winning 184 votes. This was the 12th time since Japan joined the UN in 1956, the most of any member state (Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Mozambique, Ecuador, Switzerland and Malta were also elected in the same election.

The Foreign Minister’s Statement issued the following day, in announcing the election, put it this way: “The Security Council currently finds itself unable to function effectively in the face of the aggression against Ukraine by Russia, a permanent member, and of North Korea’s nuclear and missile activities, which repeatedly violate Security Council resolutions and threaten the peace and security of our country, the region and the international community — a time that can be called a test.”

What Japan Said in the Security Council as a Member

On February 24, 2023, the first anniversary of the invasion, Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi (then in office) delivered a statement at the Security Council’s ministerial-level debate. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ published provisional Japanese translation, Minister Hayashi looked back at that day a year before: “Exactly one year ago today, in this very Security Council chamber, while discussion was under way on how to prevent aggression against Ukraine, Russia, a permanent member, launched its aggression against Ukraine before the eyes of every member of the Council.”

He went on to call this “an affront to this Council and to the United Nations as a whole,” and said Japan condemned Russia’s aggression “in the strongest possible terms.” He called on Russia to immediately halt the aggression, withdraw its forces and equipment from Ukraine, and respect Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, and also condemned attacks on critical infrastructure, Russia’s nuclear rhetoric, and the seizure and militarization of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

Near the end of Japan’s term, on November 18, 2024 (New York time), State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hisayuki Fujii attended a ministerial-level meeting on the situation in Ukraine convened by the United Kingdom, which held the Council presidency. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, State Minister Fujii expressed solidarity with the people of Ukraine as the invasion reached its 1,000th day, and raised the deployment of North Korean soldiers to fight alongside Russia against Ukraine. The provisional Japanese translation of his statement includes the line, “Today’s Ukraine may be tomorrow’s East Asia,” and he said Japan condemned the military cooperation between Russia and North Korea “in the strongest possible terms.” Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Akahori also attended a Security Council meeting on September 24 of the same year.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Summary of the Term

The Foreign Minister’s Statement of January 10, 2025, issued after the term ended, summed up the two years as follows. On Ukraine, Japan strongly condemned Russia’s aggression through Security Council and General Assembly meetings, called for the immediate withdrawal of Russian forces, and urged a just and lasting peace for Ukraine based on the UN Charter. It also condemned North Korea’s dispatch of soldiers to Russia and Russia’s procurement and use of North Korean weapons and ammunition.

The same statement notes that Japan served as Council president for the month twice during its term. In January 2023 it hosted a ministerial-level open debate on the rule of law, and in March 2024 a ministerial-level meeting on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.

Three Years After the Invasion, the First Resolution

After Japan’s term ended, on February 24, 2025, the Security Council adopted a draft resolution submitted by the United States (Resolution 2774). UN News described this as the first Security Council resolution since the start of the full-scale invasion. Before the vote, five European countries — France, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Greece and Slovenia — put forward three amendments, none of which passed. According to the Security Council’s records, two of them received nine or more votes in favor but failed because of Russia’s veto, while the third received only six votes in favor and also failed. Russia, too, put forward two amendments of its own, neither of which received enough votes. The resolution was adopted in its original form, with 10 votes in favor, and the five European countries that had proposed amendments abstained.

According to UN News, Ukraine’s representative pointed out that the adopted resolution lacked language framing the war as aggression and lacked reference to the principles of the UN Charter. Russia’s representative described the adopted text as “a step in the right direction.”

Going by UN News’s own account, during the two years Japan sat on the Council, not a single Security Council resolution on Ukraine was adopted. What being a Council member allowed Japan to do was to call aggression aggression from the Council floor, and to leave that on the record. The flow of Russia’s veto and the General Assembly’s resolutions is also set out chronologically in A Timeline of Ukraine’s Independence and Russia’s Invasion.