ICC President Tomoko Akane, speaking via video link to reporters in Tokyo, called on Japan, the court's biggest financial backer, to help it in its hour of need. The US intensified its campaign against the Hague-based court last week by sanctioning Akane and a senior trial lawyer, and plans to persuade other countries to quit the institution. The US is not an ICC member, but its actions stem from the court seeking an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a past probe into US troops in Afghanistan.