Japan's foreign minister demands release of detained journalist in talks with Lavrov at G20 meeting

In brief

• Japan's foreign minister pressed Russia's foreign minister for the release of a Japanese journalist held in Sakhalin since October 13.
• The talks took place on the sidelines of a G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Atlanta and were the first in-person meeting since September 2021.
• Russian state media describe the talks as a formal negotiation but do not mention the journalist's case.

Talks in Atlanta on the margins of G20

Japan's Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi held talks with Lavrov on Friday in Atlanta, on the fringes of the G20 foreign ministers' gathering. Japan's embassy in Washington said Motegi pressed for the immediate release of Yuki Imai, a Japanese national held in Russia's Sakhalin region since October 13 (Japan Demands Release of Detained Journalist at G20 Meeting – The Moscow Times).

Russia said earlier this month that it had detained a Japanese journalist in the Far East on suspicion of espionage. The embassy said Motegi also raised several other current bilateral issues, without giving details.

Talks come amid strained ties

The meeting took place against deteriorating relations over Ukraine and the long-running dispute over the Kuril Islands, which Japan calls the Northern Territories. The two countries have still not signed a formal peace treaty ending World War II. Tensions rose after Japan joined Western sanctions against Russia.

Russian state outlets reported that the two ministers met for the first full-format meeting in five years, pointing to their last face-to-face contact at the UN General Assembly in New York in September 2021 (Лавров провел переговоры с главой МИД Японии в Атланте - Ведомости – vedomosti.ru) (Лавров провел первую за пять лет полноценную встречу с главой МИД Японии – gazeta.press). Vedomosti recalled that a possible meeting had been floated in May, when a Japanese upper-house lawmaker said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko had proposed it for the ASEAN ministerial in Manila in July 2026.

What the Russian side says

The Russian accounts describe the meeting as a formal negotiation and present it as a step toward restoring contacts. Russian state media did not address Japan's demand for Imai's release, and none of the Russian reports dealt with the journalist's case directly (Лавров провел встречу с главой МИД Японии на полях совещания министров G20 – kp.ru). Japanese and Russian accounts therefore differ on the agenda.