Japan asks Russia for info, fair process over journalist detention

TOKYO - Japan has asked Russia to promptly provide information regarding the detention of a Japanese journalist on Sakhalin in the Russian Far East on spying allegations, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said Wednesday.

"We are making requests...for humanitarian considerations, and fair and just treatment" if the journalist has, in fact, been detained, Motegi told a Diet committee, with the development clouding the outlook for bilateral ties already frayed by a territorial dispute and Japan's participation in sanctions against Russia in the wake of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.