(Adnkronos) – Japan has asked Russia for the “immediate release” of the Hokkaido Shimbun journalist arrested on October 13 on Sakhalin Island on espionage charges. NHK reports this morning on the mission to Moscow of the Director-General of the European Affairs Bureau of Tokyo’s Foreign Ministry, Nakamura Kimitake, who met yesterday with the head of the Third Asia Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Lyudmila Georgievna Vorobyova. The meeting served to reiterate Tokyo’s position, with a request for guaranteed consular access.
In a note, Tokyo’s Foreign Ministry explained this morning that, despite the “serious situation in relations between Japan and Russia,” there is an agreement to keep dialogue open on the case of reporter Yuki Imai and other dossiers. Moscow merely confirmed yesterday that during the meeting, the need to “take into account Russia’s national security concerns” was highlighted. The note makes no explicit reference to the journalist’s case, but for a return to “normality” in relations between the two countries, Tokyo is asked to “renounce anti-Russian activities”.
This morning, media from the Land of the Rising Sun further report that Tokyo government spokesman, Minoru Kihara, reiterated the demand for the “immediate release” of the journalist, repeating that relations with Moscow are in a “difficult” phase, even more strained after Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s summer visit to one of the disputed islands of the Kuril archipelago, in a strategic position between Hokkaido and Kamchatka.
