United States imposes sanctions on ICC President Tomoko Akane

The US Treasury Department sanctioned Tomoko Akane, the sitting president of the International Criminal Court, on Tuesday. Akane, a Japanese judge who leads the court established in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity, now faces asset freezes and financial restrictions under US law.

A campaign that keeps getting louder

The sanctions against Akane didn’t arrive in a vacuum. They stem from an executive order issued in February 2025 that authorized asset freezes and visa bans targeting ICC officials involved in cases touching US citizens or allies.

Earlier rounds of sanctions in 2025 had already hit Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan and several other judges connected to investigations involving American personnel and allies, including Israel. Akane was not among those initially designated, making this week’s move a deliberate expansion of the target list.

In July 2026, Akane had been actively working to shore up diplomatic support, particularly from her home country of Japan, to push back against US pressure. Washington had been calling on ICC member states to withdraw from the court entirely, and Akane was trying to rally a coalition to resist those calls.

What the ICC actually does, and why the US objects

The International Criminal Court was created by the Rome Statute in 2002 as a permanent tribunal for prosecuting the most serious international offenses. 125 countries are members. The United States, China, Russia, and India are notably absent from that list.

The February 2025 executive order framed ICC actions as a direct threat to US national security, providing the legal foundation for the sanctions campaign that followed.

The diplomatic fallout

Sanctioning a Japanese national who holds the ICC’s highest office creates an awkward situation for Tokyo. Japan is both a close US ally and an ICC member state. Akane’s designation forces Japan into exactly the kind of uncomfortable diplomatic position that sanctions are designed to create. The sanctions also extend not only to targeted individuals but to their families.

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