Japanese diplomats met with journalist Yuki Imai two weeks after his arrest. Russia accused him of espionage, the Japanese Foreign Ministry reported. They did not mention his name - only "a Japanese citizen who was arrested in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and transferred to Moscow" was mentioned. "The Government of Japan urges the Government of the Russian Federation to immediately release the Japanese citizen, to ensure that he receives humane and fair and impartial treatment. The Japanese government will make every effort to protect its citizens," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. On October 13, the FSB reported that it detained a journalist from the Japanese newspaper Hokkaido Shimbun in the Sakhalin region on suspicion of espionage. A criminal case was opened against him according to A. 276 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. According to a decision of the Portovo court in Moscow, he was taken into custody. The FSB said it had allegedly collected information on the number of participants in the war in Ukraine who had mobilized in the Kuril Islands.