Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Tokyo will closely follow the development of the investigation against Russian President Vladimir Putin.. He stated this after talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Tokyo, Japan Today reports..

Scholz also said he supported the International Criminal Court issuing an arrest warrant for Putin on the grounds that he directed the war crime of forcibly deporting Ukrainian children during Russia's invasion of Ukraine..

This was the first time that a court in The Hague had issued an arrest warrant for a sitting head of state who is a permanent member of the UN Security Council..

At a joint press conference after negotiations with Scholz, Kishida said that they share the opinion that they will never accept Russia's threat to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine and promised to extend sanctions against Moscow.

The meeting of the two leaders comes as this year's G7 Presidency Japan is trying to lay the groundwork for the group's summit to be held in Hiroshima in May.. Germany chaired the G7 last year. The group also includes the UK, Canada, France, Italy, the US and the EU.

Kishida aims to present his vision of a world without nuclear weapons at the G7 summit amid rising fears that Russia could use nuclear weapons against Ukraine.

During the meeting, Kishida and Scholz confirmed that they will join forces to pave the way for the success of the G7 summit..

The two leaders also agreed that Japan and Germany would work together to reform the UN as they expressed their willingness to become permanent members of the Security Council..

Russia is one of the five permanent members of the Security Council with veto power, along with Britain, China, France and the United States.. All of them are nuclear countries. Some critics argue that the Council has become dysfunctional, especially since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022..

Meanwhile, Japan and Germany held their first high-level intergovernmental talks on Saturday, March 18, in Tokyo.. The countries confirmed they will strengthen cooperation in the field of economic security and semiconductor industries to strengthen supply chains amid the growth of China's military and economic influence around the world..

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On March 17, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Ombudsman for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova for complicity in kidnapping children from Ukraine. As a consequence, in the 123 countries that have ratified the Rome Statute, they must be arrested, after which they must be taken to court..