Japan totally prohibit export to N. Korea

On June 16, 2009, Japanese Ministry of Economic, Trade and Industry ("METI") announced Japan totally ban export to North Korea based on the UN Security Council resolution 1718.
The summary of this announcement is as follows.

- Prohibit export of ALL goods to North Korea by imposing export approval based on Export Trade Control Order Article 2, 1-1-2. (This imply even if an exporter apply export approval to METI, they never approve it.)

- Prohibit brokering of trade by Japanese resident, of the goods shipped from third country to North Korea based on Foreign Exchange Order Article 18, 3.

- Humanitarian aid is treated as the exception of export prohibition.

- This prohibition is effective on June 18, 2009 to April 13, 2010.

- The violation of this would be penalized based on Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law, Article 70. Imprisonment not more than 3 years and monetary penalty. In addition, as administrative sanction, the prohibition of export not more than 1 year may be imposed.

On the same day, the notification by Director General of Customs and Tariff Bureau was announced to rigidly follow this announcement. Export by detour via a third country toward North Korea must be checked, the inspection by Customs to suspicious export case will be tighten. In case by case, Customs official may check the export contract or other supporting documents in export declaration to Customs to strictly inspect the final destination of the goods.

The actual trade amount from Japan to North Korea was approx. 8 millions US dollar in 2008, and it continued to decline for years. Therefore, the negative impact to Japanese trade economy is considered as very limited.