China detained two Japanese nationals last month for allegedly violating a smuggling law, Japan’s top government spokesman said Wednesday (June 24), as the Asian rivals remain mired in a months-long diplomatic spat.
Japan’s consular offices in China were notified last month that one Japanese citizen was captured in Dalian on suspicion of “smuggling goods subject to a national export and import ban”, top spokesman Minoru Kihara (pic) told a briefing.
A week later, Japanese authorities were separately informed that another Japanese national had been detained over the same allegation, Kihara added.
“These cases remain under investigation,” he said, adding the two individuals appear to be in good health and that the government will “take appropriate measures from the standpoint of their protection”.
The relationship between Japan and China worsened after prime minister Sanae Takaichi suggested in November that Japan could intervene militarily if China attempted to seize Taiwan, the self-ruled island claimed by Beijing.
Under Takaichi, Japan has quickened its pivot towards a more proactive defence policy, further shaking off — with US encouragement — its pacifist outlook in place since the end of World War II.
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