"Japanese companies maintain suspended operations in Russia, survey shows," 21 February 2024

Most of the Japanese companies surveyed by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) stuck to their earlier decisions to partially or fully suspend operations in Russia following its invasion of Ukraine two years ago, JETRO said...

In early February, JETRO conducted a survey of 156 companies operating in Russia's two biggest cities, Moscow and St Petersburg. Of the 63 firms that responded 60.3% have partially or fully suspended business in Russia, the survey showed.

The number of those with fully or partially suspended operations, however, decreased by 5.9 percentage points from JETRO's previous survey in May 2023.

Among those 60.3%, operations were fully suspended by 25.4%, an increase of 9.2 percentage points. The share of companies doing "business as usual" rose by 4 percentage points to 34.9%, JETRO said, without naming the companies.

Those continuing business as usual have diversified payment methods and currencies, reviewed their business partners and products to avoid sanctions, the survey showed...