China Detains Japanese Man in Shanghai Since December with Unclear Reason; Japan Demands Early Release

The Japanese foreign ministry announced on Thursday that Chinese police had detained a Japanese man in Shanghai while the circumstances of his detention and the cause for it were unknown.

In China, 16 Japanese individuals have been jailed on different counts, including espionage, since 2015. At least ten people have been charged, and nine of them have been sentenced to jail for up to 15 years.

Japan Demands Release of Japanese Man From China Detention

At a routine news conference in Tokyo, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's administration had asked China, through its consulate in Shanghai, for a chance to meet the individual and advocated for his early release. Matsuno stated that he was in good health, according to the South China Morning Post.

"On several occasions, the Japanese government has pressed the Chinese side to release the individual as soon as possible," Matsuno said. He also stated that the Chinese side has not informed Japan that the individual is in terrible condition. Japan has requested a meeting with the individual from China and would take assistance measures, including communication with his family, according to Matsuno.

The imprisonment is a setback for Japan-China relations, which are commemorating the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations normalization. It's the first time a Japanese person has been detained by Chinese officials since a Hokkaido University professor was arrested in Beijing in September and freed in November of the same year, as per The Japan Times.

Japan has also made a protest against China over the death of a Japanese man in his 70s who was seized in Beijing in 2015 and sentenced to a 12-year jail term for spying, according to the government's top spokesperson.

According to people familiar with Sino-Japanese ties, the individual used to work for an airline and frequently visited China as a consultant before dying of sickness this month in a Beijing hospital.

Since President Xi Jinping took office in 2013, China has increased its surveillance of foreign groups and persons in the name of national security. Other foreign nationals have been detained in China, notably with the implementation of a counter-espionage law in 2014 and a national security statute in 2015.

China Recently Arrested Uyghur Man Who Studied in Japan

Meanwhile, local authorities in China's far-western Xinjiang province have detained an Uyghur who studied in Japan as a Ph.D. student and worked at a restaurant chain after returning home, according to media reports.

Abduhelil Abdurehim worked at the Uyghur restaurant chain Herembagh in Urumqi (in Chinese, Wulumuqi) and resided in the Lijing residential complex on Union Road in Xinjiang's capital Urumqi (in Chinese, Wulumuqi) at the time of his detention, according to Radio Free Asia.

Abdusemi Abdurehim, Abduhelil's brother who now resides in Japan, claimed he lost communication with him in November 2021 and became concerned for his safety when he realized Herembagh's website was no longer maintained.

Because Abduhelil likewise ceased contacting via his WeChat messaging app, Abdusemi thought police had detained his sibling. He informed the news site that the last time he spoke to his brother on WeChat, along with his sister, was on June 12.

When Abdusemi and his sister phoned Abduhelil's wife to check about his brother, she informed him that his phone was broken and that he needed it fixed.

Uyghur Muslims are a Turkic minority ethnic group that originated in and are culturally associated with the Central and East Asian area. The Uyghurs are indigenous to the People's Republic of China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, India Blooms reported.