TOKYO: Japan has urged China to release its national who was sentenced to 12 years in prison on espionage charges, Tokyo’s top government spokesman said Monday.

“We are aware that on November 3, the verdict of 12 years in prison to a Japanese man in his 50s, who had been detained in July 2019, was finalised, as his appeal was turned down” at the high court in China’s Hunan province, MATSUNO Hirokazu told reporters.

“The Japanese government will continue offering every support we can from the viewpoint of protecting Japanese citizens,” he added.

Since China’s amended anti-espionage law went into effect in 2015, at least 17 Japanese people have been detained by Chinese authorities, according to the Japanese foreign ministry.

Last month, Japan’s embassy in China confirmed that one of its citizens — an employee of the Japanese pharmaceutical company Astellas — had been formally arrested, months after Beijing said it had detained the man on spying allegations.

Both China’s President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio are due to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco this week.

But Matsuno said “there is no fixed plans regarding a Japan-China summit” on the sidelines of the meeting.

Japanese local media reported that diplomats on both sides are working towards holding a meeting between the leaders in San Francisco.

If Xi and Kishida do hold talks, the agenda will likely include Japanese citizens detained by China, Japanese news agency Jiji reported, citing unnamed government sources.

Kishida will also raise China’s blanket ban on Japanese seafood imports following Tokyo’s release of wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, Jiji reported.

Beijing has also detained a series of people, both Japanese and Chinese, in recent years on allegations of spying for its island neighbour.

Perennial rivals in East Asia, tensions between China and Japan have long simmered over territorial disputes, Tokyo’s colonial history and other flashpoints.

They have flared again since Tokyo this year began releasing treated wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear disaster site, a move that international agencies insist is safe but Beijing has lambasted as irresponsible.

AFP