A Japanese journalist suspected of spying has been arrested on Russia’s Sakhalin Island, the top Russian domestic security agency said Tuesday (October 13, 2026).
The arrest comes amid a spike in tensions between Russia and Japan following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s August trip to the Kuril Islands, the Moscow-controlled Pacific archipelago that is claimed by both countries. The Soviet Union took the Kuril Islands from Japan in the final days of World War II, and the ongoing dispute has prevented the countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending their hostilities.
The Federal Security Service, or FSB, said in a statement that the Japanese man, who worked for the Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper, was suspected of gathering information related to Russia’s defence capability on behalf of a Japanese intelligence agency. The FSB, the main successor agency to the Soviet KGB, said the Japanese man, whom it didn’t name, was arrested as he was preparing to leave Russia. The agency said the suspect was flown to Moscow, where he was put behind bars. Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Putin’s visit, his first to the islands, was “incompatible with the Japanese position on the Northern Territories” and was “absolutely unacceptable. She said it was a further blow to already-strained ties between the two countries over Ukraine. Moscow responded by summoning the Japanese ambassador to protest the “anti-Russia” statements by Takaichi and other Japanese officials, emphasising that “Russia’s sovereignty and jurisdiction over the southern Kuril Islands are absolutely unshakable.”
