TOKYO — In a development announced this Tuesday, Japan’s highest-ranking government spokesperson confirmed that a Japanese citizen held in Iranian custody since early this year has been granted temporary release on bail.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara shared with reporters in Tokyo that confirmation of the bail release came from Iranian officials on Monday. While Japanese authorities have welcomed this step, they remain firm in their push for the detainee’s full and unconditional release from custody, Kihara added.
According to Kihara, Tamaki Tsukada, Japan’s sitting ambassador to Iran, has already held an in-person meeting with the recently bailed citizen. The ambassador verified that the detainee is in stable good health, though no further identifying details or context around the detention have been released by the Japanese government to date.
Independent reports and advocacy records point to the detainee being a staff journalist with NHK, Japan’s national public broadcasting service. This case marks the second detention of a Japanese national in Iran within the last year: another Japanese citizen held in Iranian custody starting last June was released and repatriated to Japan back in March of this year.
Tuesday’s official confirmation comes just 24 hours after a high-stakes telephone conversation between Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and his Iranian counterpart, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. The call covered a range of pressing regional issues, including Iran’s ongoing military tensions with the United States and Israel. But Japan’s top diplomat also used the discussion to reiterate the country’s longstanding request for the full release of the January detainee. A post-meeting statement from Japan’s Foreign Ministry noted that Araghchi responded by saying he would treat Japan’s formal request with full seriousness.
New York-based press freedom advocacy group the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has publicly named the detained individual as an NHK reporter. Citing anonymous sources who requested anonymity out of fear of official reprisal, the CPJ reported that the journalist was taken into custody by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on January 20, before being transferred to Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison on February 23.
Associated Press correspondent Mayuko Ono based in Tokyo contributed reporting to this update.