China pressed Japanese businessman to admit to spying in plea deal

Japan Today

2 days ago

Chinese authorities pushed a Japanese businessman, recently convicted by a Chinese court, to admit to spying in exchange for a lesser charge under a plea bargain, sources close to diplomatic ties said Sunday.
The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court on Wednesday sentenced a man in his 60s working for Astellas Pharma Inc. to three years and six months in prison for espionage.
The defendant admitted to the charge, but the verdict did not detail how he acted illegally. Legal experts said the sentence appeared more lenient than those given to other Japanese nationals tried on spying charges in China.
In May this year, another Japanese man was sentenced to 12 years in prison for espionage by a Shanghai court.
During questioning, authorities told the man and his lawyer what sentence he could expect if he pleaded guilty and explained the legal basis for it, the sources said. A 2018 amendment to China's criminal procedure law introduced a plea leniency system.
According to people familiar with Sino-Japanese relations, the man was convicted of providing information to a Japanese intelligence agency and received rewards.
The Astellas Pharma employee was detained in March 2023, just ahead of his scheduled return to Japan, was formally arrested in October of that year and was indicted in August 2024.
He had served as an executive at the pharmaceutical company's Chinese unit and a senior official of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China.
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