Japanese journalist arrested in Russia’s Sakhalin region on spying charges

MOSCOW (AP) — A Japanese journalist suspected of spying has been arrested on Russia’s Sakhalin Island, the top Russian domestic security agency said Tuesday.

The arrest comes amid a spike in tensions between Russia and Japan following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s August trip to the Kuril Islands, the Moscow-controlled Pacific archipelago that is claimed by both countries.

The Federal Security Service, or FSB, said in a statement that the Japanese man, who worked for the Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper, was suspected of gathering information related to Russia’s defense capability on behalf of a Japanese intelligence agency.

The FSB, the main successor agency to the Soviet KGB, said the Japanese man, whom it didn’t name, was arrested as he was preparing to leave Russia. The agency said the suspect was flown to Moscow where he was put behind bars.

The FSB released a video showing masked agents in black outfits arresting the man in a hotel room and then escorting him to a plane bound for Moscow. He was then shown facing a judge at the Lefortovo District Court, who ordered him to be held in custody for two months pending the probe.

Russia’s Sakhalin region includes Sakhalin Island and the four southernmost islands of the Kuril chain, which Japan calls the Northern Territories. Putin visited one of them, Iturup, in August.

The Soviet Union took the Kuril Islands from Japan in the final days of World War II and the ongoing dispute has prevented the countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending their hostilities.

Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Putin’s visit, his first to the islands, was “incompatible with the Japanese position on the Northern Territories” and was “absolutely unacceptable.” She said it was a further blow to already-strained ties between the two countries over Ukraine.

Moscow responded by summoning the Japanese ambassador to protest the “anti-Russia” statements by Takaichi and other Japanese officials, emphasizing that “Russia’s sovereignty and jurisdiction over the southern Kuril Islands are absolutely unshakable.”

Decades of diplomatic efforts to negotiate a settlement haven’t produced any visible results. Moscow over the years has also bolstered its military presence on the Kurils in moves that appeared to underscore its firm stance in the dispute.

In recent years, Russia has arrested a number of foreigners — mainly Americans — on various criminal charges and then released them in prisoner swaps with the United States and other Western nations.

The largest exchange since the Cold War took place in August 2024, when Moscow freed journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva, fellow American Paul Whelan, and Russian dissidents in a multinational deal that set two dozen people free.