TOKYO: A Japanese employee of Astellas Pharma, who was sentenced to 3-1/2 years in prison in China this week, has no plan to appeal, Japan’s Kyodo news agency said on Saturday, citing unnamed Japanese and Chinese sources.

The Japanese citizen had been detained since March 2023 on suspicion of spying and was indicted about a year ago.

Japanese Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary AOKI Kazuhiko told a regular press conference on Thursday, a day after the court decision, that the ruling was “extremely regrettable”, without mentioning the individual’s name or affiliation.

Asked about the Kyodo report, a Japanese foreign ministry official said that a decision to appeal or not should be decided between the defendant and lawyers, and that the government will refrain from making a prediction.

Reuters’s phone calls to Astellas Pharma have not been answered, and there was no immediate response from the Chinese foreign ministry.

Reuters