Take our user survey and make your voice heard.
The Public Safety Bureau of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department on Wednesday filed charges against a Russian man of Asian origin for spying and the illegal use of a missing Japanese national's passport.
The Metropolitan Police Department took the action after judging that it is unlikely the man, whose real name is unknown, will reenter Japan because the passport he renewed outside the country in 1997 expired in June last year, they said.
The man, believed to be currently in his seventies, has been on the international wanted list since 1997. In furthering their investigations police have decided to bring charges against him for allegedly applying for a passport under the name of dental engineer Ichiro Kuroba (who was declared missing in Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture in 1965), at the Japanese embassy in Austria in 1997.
Police said the suspect had worked at an international trade company in Tokyo for 30 years, collecting military and political information for the Russian Intelligence Agency (the former KGB) through business trips to Western countries and his dealings with Japanese Self-Defense Force personnel, politicians and Russian embassy officials in Japan.
Police said the suspect is married to a Japanese woman, who currently living in Japan, and that she has communicated with him by radio since he left the country in 1995. She is quoted by police as saying, “I was sometimes concerned as to his real identity but I always trusted him.”
© Japan Today
16 Comments
Login to comment
dontpanic
"it is unlikely the man.....will reenter Japan because the passport he renewed outside the country...expired in June last year."
Or maybe he's returned on another fake passport?
nandakandamanda
Spot on, dontpanic. Done it once? He could easily get another one.
Hmmm... take off that goatee and those rims, and he looks a bit like...
regev
As manifested in the latest Georgian war, in the fight against US defense missiles in Europe, in Iran, in this spying case and many more, it is now clear: the Russian power is back, big time. Beware people wherever you are…
miokou0
does anyone know exactly what information he was tryin g 2 gather for? or what his true intentions were?
nath
'The Metropolitan Police Department took the action after judging that it is unlikely the man, whose real name is unknown, will reenter Japan because the passport he renewed outside the country in 1997 expired in June last year, they said.'
So, the police took action after there was nothing they could do. They took NO action!
LIBERTAS
The MPD had 30 years to get off their well padded posteriors and DO something. Now that they (sigh!) can't, they don't. I'm not surprised.
KissMint
Love it, Hotginger. Well said! (er.. written).
nisegaijin
Lol, thats top of incompetence on j-cops. They basically are saying they don't know who are they looking for. I am sure their finger print crap will work
GW
this sounds like some kind of comedy, pink panther style!
Alphaape
A seventy year old spy still using "radio" to contact his wife. I guess that she is a "ham radio" operator, but if not, if I were the J-cops I would arrest her just on GP for communicating. You can't tell me that even with advanced technology, the only way they communicated was via short wave radio. She pretty much knew what he was up to.
My guess, he had a great insight to either a host bar or some other establishment, and just waited for the JMSDF and others to come by his favorite drinking spot after doing business with them.
The USSR (CCCP) is back! Differernt name, but still the same friendly service.
ExPrinceska
We are not back, as we have never left, we have always been here.
Alphaape
ExP, glad to see that the "Bear" is out of hibernation. Which territory will you reclaim next? I am sure the Kuril's look mighty tasty now.
mojibake
Let's see now, Japanese passport ... no biometric checks. Foreign passport ... fingerprinting. Now if I were a Russian spy, which passport would I be holding?
OgieDoggie
He doesn't look Russian to me !!! Are you sure he's not a master of disguise too?
imagawa
The truth is while he was here the Japanese found out who he was & turned him, he is now spying for Japan, this pointless arrest warrant is just designed to give him credibility & stop the Russians sending him back to Japan. He’s of more use to the Japanese in Russia so now they have made it impossible for him to come back. And even if the Russian send him some place else he can still spy for them both.
You know you really shouldn’t take anything at face value where spies are concerned.
Nippon5
And still working in the buy drink bars :)
Russia never stopped spying on others and others never stopped spying on Russia...