Japanese Foreign Ministry officials in Moscow spent this week trying to reach Yuki Imai, a Hokkaido Shimbun correspondent held in Russia’s Far East on a spying allegation. The FSB detained him on October 14 in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Sakhalin Island. Broadcast images showed officers entering his hotel room while he slept. Investigators say he sought material about troops near the Kiril Islands, a long-disputed area in Tokyo-Moscow relations. He was soon moved to Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison; a court there ordered pretrial custody through at least December 12. The International Federation of Journalists, seeking his immediate release, says the 34-year-old could face up to 20 years if convicted. Japanese embassy officials have not been allowed to see him. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi condemned the arrest and rejected the spy claim.
- Key Point: Imai, 34, was arrested October 14 in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk by Russia’s FSB.
- Key Point: A Moscow court ordered him held at Lefortovo Prison until at least December 12.
- Key Point: The International Federation of Journalists says conviction could bring 20 years and seeks his release.
- Key Point: Ambassador Nikolay Nozdrev said Imai was caught “red-handed,” TASS reported; Tokyo denies spying.
Detention, consular access and the spy allegation
The FSB says Imai tried to obtain information about troops near the Kiril Islands, contested by Moscow and Tokyo for decades. Arrest footage showed officers waking him in his hotel room. He was soon at Lefortovo, where the court set December 12 while investigators build their case. The journalists’ federation seeks his immediate release and notes a possible 20-year term. Japan’s embassy cannot visit him, and Takaichi says the spy charge has no basis.
Russian Ambassador Nikolay Nozdrev told TASS that Imai was caught “red-handed.” He alleged Japanese intelligence agencies use reporters to gather secrets, aiming at a goal:
“undermining Russia’s security and defense capability.”
Takaichi dismissed the spy claim.
Hostage fears and earlier detentions
Yoji Gomi, a veteran correspondent and author who has covered Asia, told DW that Japanese reporters sometimes meet diplomats at work and “share thoughts and impressions.” He rejects the paid-agent notion.
“One-party nations often see foreign correspondents as spies because that is exactly what they use their journalists for,” he said.
“I can completely see how the Russians decided that Imai was a spy, as it is how they operate, plus he was in a sensitive part of Russia where there are lots of North Korean laborers that they want to keep quiet,” Gomi added.
Stephen Nagy, who teaches international relations at International Christian University in Tokyo, told DW that Russia may treat Imai as a bargaining chip to trade for detained nationals abroad. He doubts Japan will yield.
“They are going to resist because it means that Russia, or any other country, can then just seize a Japanese national, put them on trial for espionage and demand the release of one of their people,” he said.
“It would set a dangerous precedent,” he added.
The arrest follows Japan’s detention of a Qilin operative, a hacking group with Russian links, extradited to face charges in Germany over a 2024 logistics hub cyberattack. Interfax reported that the last journalist arrested there, in 2019, faced this accusation:
“attempting to obtain classified information about Russia’s military potential in the Far East”
He was soon freed. Imai’s case may be the most serious since 2023, when Evan Gershkovich of the Wall Street Journal was detained, given a 16-year penal-colony sentence and freed in a 2024 prisoner exchange with Western countries. Russia has arrested foreign journalists for such swaps before.
Islands dispute, alliances and pressure on Tokyo
The arrest is the latest incident in a bilateral tailspin. Nagy said the seizure seemed meant to pressure Tokyo and fit a joint campaign with Beijing to isolate Japan while Washington focuses on domestic matters and the Middle East.
“Moscow and Beijing are coordinating to create the image that Japan is not a reformed member of the international community but still the military state of the 1930s and that it poses a threat to stability in the Indo-Pacific region,” he said.
“This is all designed to smear Japan’s efforts to lead diplomacy in the region at a time when the US is perhaps distracted,” Nagy added.
He said the charge’s accuracy matters little.
“And it does not even matter much that it is not true; they will just continue to repeat the claim to discredit and weaken Tokyo.”
Tadashi Anno, who teaches politics at Sophia University in Tokyo, told DW that Japan had worked hard to keep ties with Russia stable even after joining international condemnation of the Ukraine invasion. He found Moscow’s timing puzzling.
“Japan condemned the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 because it was a fundamental violation of international law, but Russia is only now pushing back hard,” he said.
The backdrop is a territorial dispute over an island chain north of Japan that Soviet troops took after Japan surrendered in World War II. Tokyo calls it the Northern Territories; Moscow calls it the Southern Kurils. Hopes that diplomacy could recover the islands for Japanese sovereignty faded over two years and were further dented when Japan said in spring it would join a NATO program sending nonlethal aid to Kyiv. In August, President Vladimir Putin became the second Russian leader ever to travel there. Earlier this month, a Chinese business delegation was welcomed on one island, with economic cooperation under discussion.
Imai remains held until at least December 12. Tokyo’s options are narrow: a swap, in Nagy’s view, would invite another seizure, while consular pressure has not secured access at Lefortovo. The case has widened a postwar islands quarrel into a contest over alliances, press freedom and reporting inside Russia.
Edited by Wesley Rahn.