In a rare public departure from Tokyo's customary alignment with Washington, Japan's former defense chief has urged the Prime Minister to resist American sanctions against the president of the International Criminal Court — a call that places the enduring question of institutional independence at the center of one of the world's most consequential alliances. Japan, as a state party to the ICC, finds itself navigating the tension between its post-war commitment to international law and the gravitational pull of its security partnership with a United States that has never ratified the Rome Statu