Sentencing of Japan ‘Spy' Shows China's Line on National Security; Lack of Transparency May Set Back Japan-China Ties
The man, an employee of drugmaker Astellas Pharma Inc., had been detained by Chinese authorities since March 2023. Japan's government plans to once again press the Chinese side to quickly release Japanese nationals still being detained there. However, concerns over the lack of transparency from Chinese authorities in cases of law enforcement where 'national security' is used a pretext to detain people will continue to smolder.
According to the Japanese Embassy in China, the man appeared to listen calmly to the Japanese interpretation of the ruling read out in Chinese by the presiding judge. Only embassy officials were in attendance at the proceedings; Japanese media outlets were unable to enter the courtroom. Men who appeared to be connected to the Chinese authorities stood around the courthouse and blocked attempts to report on the proceedings.
The administration of Chinese President Xi Jinping has fostered attempts to improve ties with Japan as Beijing's relations with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump have grown increasingly adversarial. China has even recently taken steps to resolve issues that had plagued bilateral ties with Japan, such as accelerating procedures for resuming imports of Japanese marine products and beef.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry had notified the Japanese side in advance that Wednesday's ruling 'would not be as harsh' as sentences handed down in previous cases, some of which had exceeded 10 years of imprisonment, according to sources familiar with Japan-China ties.
Patriotism is expected to be on the rise in China as the nation nears a period that includes Aug. 15, which marks the anniversary of the end of **World War II**, and also Sept. 3, which China celebrates as the anniversary of its victory over Japan. The latest ruling was very likely timed to draw a line under a key contentious problem in Japan-China relations before this period.
Amid all this, the Xi administration has continued to ramp up its hegemonistic behavior in the region, such as by having China Coast Guard vessels regularly intrude into Japanese territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture and by dispatching two aircraft carriers to conduct exercises simultaneously in the Pacific Ocean. It is unlikely that Xi's administration will offer any concessions on issues that it considers to be non-negotiable, such as national security and the nation's territory.
Calls for release unanswered
The Japanese government has expressed serious concerns about China's detention of Japanese nationals. Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya even described this issue as 'one of the biggest factors impeding people-to-people exchanges and the improvement of national sentiment' between Japan and China. The government has repeatedly pressed the Chinese side to quickly release Japanese nationals it has detained, but the day of the Astellas employee's sentencing arrived without any progress being made.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba touched on the ruling Wednesday. 'We must ensure the world is orderly,' Ishiba said during a speech in Takaoka, Toyama Prefecture. 'We want to create a more transparent, well-structured order.' That comment was apparently made with the lack of transparency in China's judicial process in mind.
China is currently detaining five Japanese nationals, including the Astellas employee. They are being held in locations including Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province; Sanya, Hainan Province; and Changsha, Hunan Province. Chinese authorities have not revealed details about the reasons for and circumstances behind these detentions have not been disclosed.
The Japanese government believes it is highly likely that the Chinese side will continue to crack down on what it considers to be 'espionage' activities and to strictly apply its anti-spying law. 'The only thing we can do is have the prime minister directly reach out to President Xi and lean on him to resolve the issue,' a government official told The Yomiuri Shimbun.
The latest ruling will inevitably have an impact on economic and people-to-people exchanges between Tokyo and Beijing. The Japanese government is poised to bolster efforts to secure the release of Japanese detainees and strengthen messages urging travelers to China to exercise caution.
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Acquaintances said that although he was quiet at work. But they also said that in his private life he acted boldly, which was hard to believe for a wanted man. At the height of the so-called 'bubble economy,' he danced at discos and visited Tokyo and Yokohama to watch live music. He also went skiing, camping and fishing with friends. 'Excited about movies and music' Kirishima frequented a bar in Fujisawa for 25 years. TBS News got the proprietor to speak on camera for the first time. 'We called him 'Woo-yan,' the manager says. 'He seemed to like getting excited about movies and music the most.' The nickname 'Woo-yan' is also written on the event list at the bar. The manager felt a special bond with Kirishima as a friend. 'He remembered my birthday and brought me something every year,' the manager says. 'He would give me old movie videos, or if he happened to go to a discount store and saw some clothes that looked good on me, he would buy them for me.' He was a cheerful figure at the bar, livening up the atmosphere with the regulars. 'There was a musician he loved,' the manager remembers, 'and he would save up cans of canned chuhai that he drank every day, put a lot of pebbles in them, tie them up with duct tape, and make dozens of them as maracas for all the customers who came in, telling them to support him.' In 2023, Kirishima confessed his illness to the manager. 'He told me he had pharyngeal cancer and said he couldn't go out drinking for a while,' he says. 'About a month later, he said he'd had surgery and was cured, so he'd come again.' That never happened. Satoshi Kirishima was wanted for 50 years Afterward Ugajin was released from prison in 2003. On January 29 this year, the anniversary of Kirishima's death, he visited a shrine in Kamakura. 'The place where I met Kirishima. The place where we agreed to meet again, three months after we started our escape,' he says. 'We parted ways, agreeing to talk things over [another time].' On the appointed day, 50 years ago, Ugajin walked around the shrine grounds, but could not find Kirishima. After that, he visited the shrine almost every year. 'I couldn't meet him. I couldn't meet him. I haven't seen him for 50 years,' he says. Kirishima's classmate Okada said he felt uncomfortable with the reports that Kirishima was involved in the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries bombing. 'He's being treated like a villain,' Okada says. 'There were some things about that that I couldn't forgive. But I want to make it clear to what extent Kirishima was actually involved. For Kirishima's sake.' For Okada, one question remains: Why did Kirishima join the extremists? To find out, he visited Kamakura to ask Ugajin. 'I thought that Kirishima was a man who was easily influenced by others. So I always had a strong feeling that he was pulled in that direction,' Okada says. Ugajin disagrees. He says, 'He's not the kind of person who is influenced by others.' After Okada suggests it was Ugajin who forced Kirishima to join the group, Ugajin says, 'Do I look like the kind of person who would pull someone along? Me? He wasn't pulled along by someone, he chose that fight of his own volition. That he's just a person who doesn't think about anything. That's absolutely wrong. It's wrong.' 'An apology' Okada and Ugajin's opinions were at odds. Later, the two visited visited the Fujisawa bar. 'When we talk, we only have happy memories,' the proprietor says. 'When I think about the victims, I can't express those feelings honestly. To me, Uchida is Uchida, and because we were close, it feels like a friend has died, so I'm sad.' In 2024, Ugajin wrote in his memoir that Kirishima's escape was a 'victory against the public security police.' Since then, his feelings have changed. 'He will live life anew as an ordinary human being, not a terrorist,' he says. 'It's not fitting to call it a 'declaration of victory.'' In January 2024, Kirishima was found unable to move on a street and was taken to the hospital. Stricken with cancer, he made the aforementioned confession as to his identity on his deathbed. When police arrived, he divulged information about the attacks and the background of Kirishimia that only the man himself could have known. The results of a DNA analysis verified his identity. Why did Kirishima reveal his real name at the end? 'He wanted people to know that it wasn't just some nameless person named Uchida who died, but that he was living as Satoshi Kirishima, pretending to be Uchida,' Ugajin says. The proprietor thinks the reason might run deeper. 'I think he was a serious person, so I feel like he drew a line under himself in the end,' he says. 'By calling himself Satoshi Kirishima, it felt like he erased Satoshi Kirishima, partly as an apology for the incident.' Ugajin also visited the building where Kirishima lived for the first time. 'I made a mistake, or rather, I fought in a way that I shouldn't have,' he says. 'I've come to understand that. I think that's natural. When I look at the people he's been with, there's not much difference between my feelings and theirs. I really want to know what he was thinking. I wish I did.' A piece of paper was left behind in Kirishima's room. Handwritten on it were the words of a philosopher: 'You can understand life by looking backwards.'
