TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A Chinese court sentenced a Japanese man to three and a half years in prison on Wednesday on espionage charges, according to the Japanese embassy in Beijing.
The No. 2 Intermediate People's Court in Beijing convicted an employee of Japanese pharmaceutical company Astellas Pharma Inc. of engaging in espionage activities, Japanese Ambassador to China Kenji Kanasugi told reporters, according to Japan's Kyodo News Agency, as reported by Anadolu Agency and Al Jazeera.
"This is extremely regrettable," Kanasugi said.
He added that they will continue to demand the man's release "as soon as possible and support him."
Japanese Embassy officials in Beijing said the ambassador met with the man for about 30 minutes on Wednesday afternoon. They said the man told Kanasugi that he would decide whether to appeal the court's ruling after consulting with a lawyer.
The man, in his 60s, had worked in China for many years as an employee of the major Japanese pharmaceutical company, Astellas Pharma.
He was detained by Chinese security authorities on suspicion of espionage in March 2023, shortly before his company transferred him to Japan. He was formally arrested in October of that year and charged in August 2024.
A court in the Chinese capital opened the man's trial on Wednesday morning, which lasted 15 minutes.
A total of 17 Japanese citizens, including Astellas Pharma employees, have been detained since 2014, when China enacted an anti-espionage law, according to Kyodo News.
Of those, five remain in China, according to the news agency.
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