Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announces new sanctions on Russia at the prime minister’s office on April 8. (Koichi Ueda)

The government will ban imports of 38 goods from Russia, including vodka, as additional sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, the trade ministry said on April 12.

The items are worth about 15 billion yen ($119 million), or 1.1 percent of the value of all imports from Russia.

The Cabinet approved the new measure, which will be taken under the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law, at its meeting held the same day.

The ban will take effect on April 19, but the government will allow the designated goods ordered before that date to be imported for three months after the measure comes into force.

Of the 38 items, six are alcoholic drinks, including vodka, wine and beer. Four are wood chips used in papermaking, logs for building materials, and other wood products, totaling 10.7 billion yen in the value of imports from Russia in 2021.

The remaining 28 items are machinery and electric machines, including cars, two-wheel vehicles and vehicle parts.

All these goods can be easily procured from other countries, according to the ministry.

The Cabinet on April 12 also approved freezing the assets of 398 Russians, including Russian President Vladimir Putin’s two daughters and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s wife and child, as well as Sberbank, the biggest Russian government-affiliated bank, and Alfa Bank, the country’s largest commercial bank.

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