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China releases Japanese man jailed for spying in Guangzhou
- The man was detained by China’s National Security Bureau on suspicion of spying during a visit to Guangzhou in 2018
- He was sentenced in 2019 for harming China’s national security, sources say
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A Japanese man sentenced to prison in Guangzhou, southern China, in 2019 has been released and will be returning home, the Japanese Consulate General in the city said on Monday.
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Although the man’s identity has not been revealed, he is believed to be an employee of major Japanese trading house Itochu Corp in his 40s who was sentenced in the fall of 2019 for harming China’s national security, according to people familiar with the matter.
In November 2019, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi confirmed a male employee of Itochu had been sentenced the previous month in Guangzhou to a three-year prison term.
The consulate told Kyodo News on Monday that a Japanese national who had been arrested in the southern China city was recently released and is preparing to return to Japan.
The man was detained by the National Security Bureau on suspicion of spying during a visit to Guangzhou in February 2018. He was sentenced by a district court in the city to three years in prison on October 15, 2019.
He also had 150,000 yuan (US$21,300) confiscated as part of the sentence.
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It is not known what he had done in China to be convicted of harming the country’s national security.
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