Japan Spy Row Strains Ties

Jan 17, 2008

Japanese poachers and spy allegations have dealt a blow this week to otherwise harmonious relations between Russia and Japan. On Thursday, the Japanese government confirmed that a Japanese intelligence official had been accused earlier this week of handing over sensitive information to Russia in return for tens of thousands of dollars. Moscow rejects the claims, and blames third-party actors for attempting to sabotage Japaese-Russian relations.

If convicted of divul­ging state secrets, who has only been identified as a 52-year-old official from the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office, could face imprisonment.

On Wednesday, the head of the Russian Embassy's consular department, Oleg Ryabov, was summoned to the Japanese Foreign Ministry and told that if the spying allegations are confirmed, "this will prove to be a highly serious incident," RIA Novosti reported.

Reports that a Russian embassy staffer had met several times with an official from the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office were also confirmed by an embassy source on conditions of anonymity, RIA Novosti reported.

The Russian embassy in Tokyo has flatly denied the accusations as an attempt by "certain forces" to harm bilateral relations between the two countries.

Meanwhile, the scandal is sparking nationalistic sentiments in Japan, which still has not signed a formal peace treaty with Russia, leaving the ownership status of the South Kuril Islands, which the Soviet Union annexed after World War II, in question.

Japanese far-right groups staged protests outside of the Russian Embassy in Tokyo on Thursday. According to a RIA Novosti correspondent in Tokyo, the protesters drove through a central area of the Japanese capital in black buses equipped with PA systems, blaring out slogans like, "Clean the country of Russians!", "Go back to Russia!", and "give back our sovereign territory!"

The protesters - who want to see Japan revert to the pre-WWII imperial cult in Japan, when the emperor was considered a diety - are reported to be fierce opponents of PM Yasuro Fukuda's Liberal Democratic party, RIA Novosti reported.

Russians working in Tokyo offices, including the Russian trade representation headquarters and a RIA Novosti office, have been warned to take extra caution until further notice.

This incident comes just as a court in the Far East Russian island of Sakhalin found four Japanese sailors guilty of border violations after their fishing vessels were detained for poaching near the South Kuril Islands.

By Anna Arutunyan