Espionage/Russia: Japanese journalist arrested for research in Kuril Islands

The Russian secret service FSB has arrested a Japanese journalist from the Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper on charges of espionage. The arrest took place in the area around the island of Sakhalin in the Far East of the country, Russian state media reported, citing the secret service. The man was taken to Moscow, where a court initially ordered him to be in custody for two months.

The reporter is said to have collected material about the participation of residents of the Kuril Islands in the Russian war against Ukraine, which has been ongoing since 2022. Only a little more than 20,000 people live on the archipelago, which belongs to the Sakhalin province.

Dispute over archipelago strains relationships

The Kuril Islands are a fish-rich archipelago in the Pacific that the Soviet Union conquered from Japan at the end of World War II. Since then, Moscow and Tokyo have been arguing over who owns the four southernmost Kuril Islands, which is why there is still no peace treaty to this day. Some Kuril Islands are located just a few kilometers from the Japanese island of Hokkaido and are of military importance to Russia.

In August, a visit by Russia's president to the island of Iturup worsened relations between the two neighboring states. Tokyo protested and described the so-called Northern Territories as "original Japanese territory." Moscow has already repeatedly arrested foreign citizens on espionage charges in order to later exchange them for Russians imprisoned abroad.

Read here why an ex-secret service chief was arrested on suspicion of espionage: