A Japanese citizen was expelled in December from Russia for trying to obtain "secret documents" about the Russian army, Moscow announced on Monday, which said it had summoned a Japanese diplomat to protest.
According to a press release from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this Japanese citizen, holding a press visa, was arrested on December 25 in Vladivostok, in the Russian Far East, while "trying to obtain secret documents on the Russian military potential "in the region, bordering Japan.
"Spy attempt"
Accused of "spying attempt", he was given 72 hours to leave the country, which he did the next day, the same source said. Russia then protested to Japanese diplomats stationed in Russia and summoned one of them to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to give him an official note to that effect. The ministry did not specify when this convocation took place.
This announcement comes the day after Tokyo announced the arrest of a former employee, according to the media, of the Japanese holding company SoftBank, for economic espionage for the benefit of Russia. Yutaka Araki, 48, is suspected of having obtained "trade secrets from a computer server at a telecommunications company in violation of Japan's unfair competition law," said Tokyo police in a statement.
“Low-end espionage allegations”
According to local media reports, Japanese police suspect officials of the Russian chamber of commerce in Japan are involved in the case. The Russian embassy, for its part, denounced "allegations of low-end espionage" and "regrettable" press reports. Relations between Russia and Japan are poisoned by a territorial dispute around four islands in the south of the Kuril archipelago, in the Far East.
The dispute over these islands annexed by the USSR at the end of the Second World War and which Tokyo considers to be part of its territory has so far prevented the two countries from signing a peace treaty.
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