Japanese Citizen Nakanisi Masatoshi Gets 7 Years in Belarus for Alleged Military Intelligence Involvement

A court in Minsk, Belarus sentenced Japanese citizen Nakanishi Masatoshi to seven years in prison on charges of cooperating with a foreign intelligence service, Belarusian state prosecutors reported on March 17.

Judge ruled that Masatoshi “collected and transmitted military intelligence information to the Japanese intelligence service” from 2018 to 2024. The trial, which began on January 14, was held behind closed doors.

In addition to his prison sentence, Masatoshi has been fined approximately 21,000 Belarusian rubles (around $8,000).

According to media, Masatoshi was detained in July 2024, and in September, Belarusian state television aired a documentary titled “The Fall of the ‘Samurai’ from Tokyo.” The film claimed that Masatoshi had been gathering and transmitting information about Belarus’ military infrastructure, troop movements, and the situation in the southern region, near the Belarus-Ukraine border.

The Japanese media has also reacted to his conviction. Yomiuri Shimbun, one of Japan’s largest newspapers, highlighted the unusual interpretation of Masatoshi’s online communications. Belarusian television presented excerpts from his conversations on the Japanese social network LINE, in which he and a friend discussed business prospects in Belarus. The Belarusian version of the conversation misinterpreted a statement about the difficulty of starting a business in Belarus, transforming it into a reference to Ukraine becoming a “puppet of the United States.”

The human rights center Viasna reported that at least 75 foreigners have been politically repressed in Belarus since 2020. Currently, 13 Ukrainians are imprisoned, accused of espionage, collaboration with foreign intelligence services, comments, and aiding extremism. Other detained foreigners include eight Russians, four Poles, four Latvians, and one each from Lithuania, Estonia, the United States, Japan, and Sweden.

Previously, it was reported that a 60-year-old Crimean Tatar political prisoner, Rustem Virati, has died in a penal colony in Dimitrovgrad, Ulyanovsk region, Russia, after being sentenced to eight years in prison by Russian occupation authorities.