Japan urges Russia to release detained journalist in rare meeting

TOKYO: Japan's Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi demanded the immediate release of detained journalist Yuki Imai during his first meeting with Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in five years, according to the Japanese foreign ministry. The meeting took place at the Group of 20 (G20) summit in the United States. Russian authorities announced in recent months that Imai had been arrested on Sakhalin, an island in Russia's Far East, on espionage charges.

The Japanese foreign ministry stated that the diplomats would continue communication despite the strained relationship between Japan and Russia, which has been exacerbated by Tokyo's involvement in global sanctions against Moscow due to the Ukraine war. The last official talks between their foreign ministers occurred in September 2021 in New York.

Recently, officials from both countries had met Imai for the first time since his detention. In August, Japan expressed protest over Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to the Kuril islands, disputed territory known as the Northern Territories in Japan and seized by the Soviet Union in 1945. This was the first visit by a Russian president to the islands since Dmitry Medvedev in 2010.

In the same month, Japan also protested Russia's announcement of conducting missile tests off one of the disputed islands visited by Putin.