Japanese foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi met his Chinese counterpart on Sunday and urged Beijing to promptly release a detained Japanese national.
Hayashi’s meeting with Qin Gang was the first visit to Beijing for a Japanese foreign minister in over three years, as the two rival Asian powers seek common ground amid rising regional tension.
An employee of Astellas Pharma Inc was detained in China for unknown reasons, a company spokesperson said a week ago. Five Japanese nationals are currently detained in China, two of whom have already been tried and found guilty, according to Japan’s foreign ministry.
“I made a protest against the recent detention of a Japanese person in Beijing, and made a strong point of our position on the matter, including the early release of this national,” Hayashi told reporters.
Qin responded that China “will handle (the case) according to the law”, according to a readout from the Chinese foreign ministry.
Hayashi said Japan is seeking transparency over the legal process regarding detentions and has asked China to secure a fair and safe business environment.
“This happened when the Chinese government is trying to promote Japanese investment to China, and we see a discrepancy there,” deputy press secretary of Japan’s foreign ministry Yukiko Okano told reporters on Sunday, adding that this point was raised by Hayashi during his meetings in Beijing.
The Japanese minister also conveyed Tokyo’s grave concerns over an increase in China’s military activity, including its collaboration with Russia and its maritime presence in the East China Sea, he said.
‘We both affirmed the importance of continuing to have a dialogue on issues, including national security,” Hayashi said.
Hayashi said he spoke to Qin about the “importance of ensuring peace and stability in the Taiwan strait”. Beijing said Qin warned Japan “not to interfere in the Taiwan issue or undermine China’s sovereignty in any form”, stressing that Taiwan is “the core of China’s core interests”.
“Japan’s position has not changed, not with this remark, and not in recent years,” Okano said.
