Astellas employee to be released from China prison in December

Beijing – A Japanese employee of Astellas Pharma, who was sentenced to three years and six months in prison for espionage in China, is expected to be released in mid-December and return to Japan, sources said Saturday.

According to sources, final arrangements are being made to release the employee of the Japanese pharmaceutical company in his 60s on Dec. 14.

The employee was suddenly detained by Chinese authorities in March 2023, when he was about to leave China after the end of his Beijing assignment. He was indicted in August 2024.

Upon handing down the sentence in July 2025, a Beijing district court said that he had engaged in espionage by providing China-related information to an intelligence agency and receiving compensation. It, however, failed to provide details on such activities.

The Japanese government has repeatedly urged China to release the employee during a string of summits, meetings between foreign ministers and other talks. The Chinese side has rejected such calls and has yet to provide a detailed account of the circumstances behind the detention.

While it remains unclear how much of his pretrial detention period will be credited toward his sentence, the employee would likely have completed serving his term if released in mid-December.

China is set to host a summit of leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, Nov. 18-19.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and Chinese President Xi Jinping may discuss the Astellas employee’s release if they meet on the sidelines of the APEC summit. Whether such a meeting will take place remains uncertain, however, given China’s continued objections to Takaichi’s parliamentary remarks last year on a possible Taiwan contingency.

In 2014, the Xi administration established an anti-espionage law. Since then, 17 Japanese nationals have been detained for alleged espionage activities, including the Astellas employee and four others who are still in custody.

With no clear prospect for improving Japan-China relations, many Japanese nationals who either go on business trips to China or live in the country have voiced concerns, especially because of the vaguely defined scope of the law, which was revised in 2023.

An executive at a Japanese-affiliated company in China said, “We don’t know what could get us arrested.”

Such concerns have deepened since a new rule that took effect in July 2024 authorized officials to inspect smartphones and personal computers in enforcing the anti-espionage law. A senior official of a Japanese-affiliated company in China said that the Chinese authorities “may end up examining companies’ confidential business information.”

As the Chinese Communist Party is set to hold its once-every-five-years national congress in the second half of next year, tighter controls in various sectors appear inevitable.

“Japanese residents in China may be targeted again,” a Japanese national in Beijing said.