Japan urges Russia to free detained journalist Yuki Imai

Japan's Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi urged Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to release Japanese journalist Yuki Imai during talks at the G20 summit in the United States, Japan's foreign ministry said Saturday.

Russian authorities said this month that Imai had been arrested on Sakhalin, in Russia's Far East, on spying accusations. Japan's foreign ministry said he is now detained in Moscow and that Japanese officials met him this week for the first time since his arrest.

The ministry said Motegi “strongly demanded the immediate release” of Imai. It also said the two diplomats would maintain communication despite the severe state of Japan-Russia relations.

Japan said the talks were the first official meeting between the countries' foreign ministers since September 2021 in New York.

Relations have been strained by a decades-old dispute over Pacific islands known in Japan as the Northern Territories and in Russia as part of the Kuril islands. Ties have worsened since Japan joined sanctions against Moscow over the Ukraine war. Japan also protested in August over Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to the disputed islands and over Russian plans for missile tests near one of them.