# Tomoko Akane **Entity class:** Person / international judge **Domain:** International criminal law / judicial institutions **Doc Type:** Person Node **Maturity:** Developing ## Definition **Tomoko Akane** is a judge and President of the [[wiki/International Criminal Court|International Criminal Court]]. Her public statements present the Court as an independent judicial institution created by states through the [[wiki/Rome Statute|Rome Statute]] and defend its work against political coercion. ## October 2026 Dispute [[blog/20261009 - You Play Your Games - We Play Ours|You Play Your Games - We Play Ours]] answers Akane's video statement rejecting American sanctions. Her warning that the Court cannot stand alone and depends on the states that created it becomes the article's evidence for [[wiki/Borrowed Capacity|borrowed capacity]] and [[wiki/Invisible Dependency|institutional dependency]]. ## Evidence Boundary Akane's defense of judicial independence is the Court's institutional position. The blog entry's reading of that defense as an admission of dependency is Bryant's interpretation. Preserving both makes the dispute legible without turning either side's rhetoric into an uncontested fact. ## Relationships - **Institution:** [[wiki/International Criminal Court|International Criminal Court]]. - **Constitutive treaty:** [[wiki/Rome Statute|Rome Statute]]. - **Opposing U.S. voice in the source:** [[wiki/Marco Rubio|Marco Rubio]]. - **Source blog entry:** [[blog/20261009 - You Play Your Games - We Play Ours|You Play Your Games - We Play Ours]]. ## Sources / Provenance - [ICC — Statement of President Judge Tomoko Akane on International Criminal Justice Day, July 17, 2026](https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/statement-icc-president-judge-tomoko-akane-day-international-criminal-justice). - [[blog/20261009 - You Play Your Games - We Play Ours|You Play Your Games - We Play Ours]] for the October 2026 statement and response discussed here.