Japanese Businessman Sentenced in China for Espionage

China’s judiciary has sentenced a Japanese businessman to 3.5 years in jail on charges of espionage, Japan’s embassy in Beijing said on Wednesday.

The person in question, identified by the Kyodo news agency as an worker of Tokyo-based pharmaceutical firm Astellas Pharma Inc., was originally taken into custody in March 2023 and formally arrested eight months later.

“In light of the sentence, we have once again strongly urged the Chinese side for the early release of the Japanese national concerned in this case as well as others detained,” the Japanese embassy said in a statement.

The embassy also called on China’s government to “ensure their legitimate rights and humane treatment during detention” and to “improve the transparency of the judicial process.”

Following the verdict, Japanese ambassador to China Kenji Kanasugi described to reporters the outcome as “extremely regrettable”  outside Beijing’s No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court.

Japan has repeatedly voiced concern over the detention of its citizens in China. According to Kyodo, up to 17 Japanese nations have been detained since 2014, when Beijing enacted a counterespionage law. Five of them, including the Astellas employee, reportedly are still in detention.

With input from Al Jazeera