To use this site, please disable the ad blocking feature and reload the page.
This website uses cookies to collect information about your visit for purposes such as showing you personalized ads and content, and analyzing our website traffic. By clicking “Accept all,” you will allow the use of these cookies.
Users accessing this site from EEA countries and UK are unable to view this site without your consent. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.
Yomiuri Shimbun file photo The flag of China flies in Beijing.
By Daisuke Kawase / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent
12:55 JST, October 13, 2022
BEIJING — A Japanese man arrested in China on charges of spying has finished his six-year prison sentence and returned to Japan on Tuesday.
Eiji Suzuki, a former head of the Japan-China youth exchange association, had been involved in bilateral exchanges since the early 1980s.
He was arrested in 2016 on charges that he was involved in espionage.
“The ruling was completely unfounded,” Suzuki told The Yomiuri Shimbun in a telephone interview Wednesday.
The 65-year-old said he thinks he was detained “on the basis of the deterioration in relations between Japan and China.”
He expressed concerns over how developments in Japan-China relations, coupled with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s emphasis on social stability, could lead to the detention of more people.
While stressing that Japan-China relations were important, he said, “We need to think of China as a ‘dangerous country’ when dealing with it.”
Suzuki said he would continue to share his experiences and speak up about China’s human rights issues.
