‘Total hoax’: Japan company owner raps Belarus program accusing him as espionage boss

TOKYO — A man named by Belarus’ state-run broadcaster as giving instructions to a Japanese man detained in the Eastern European country on suspicion of espionage denied that they are spies, during a recent interview with the Mainichi Shimbun.

The company owner, an acquaintance of the detainee in Belarus, told the Mainichi that the broadcaster’s program that reported the incident “is a total hoax. Neither I nor he can be a spy.” He called for the Japanese detainee’s immediate release.

While the program reported on an exchange between the detained man and the company owner via the Line free messaging app, the passages originally posted in Japanese were translated into Russian to mean wholly different things. Motives of the Belarusian government, a close ally of Russia, may be behind the episode amid souring Japan-Belarus relations.

According to sources close to the matter, the detainee is Masatoshi Nakanishi. He married a Belarusian woman in 2018 and relocated to the country. He was teaching Japanese at Francisk Skorina Gomel State University in the country’s southeast.

The company owner, who is in his 50s, felt affinity with Nakanishi, the elder brother of his ex-wife and of the same generation. They have caught up with each other several times a year, including after Nakanishi moved to Belarus. The company owner last spoke with Nakanishi this past April, exchanging simple greetings.

The TV program reported that the company owner was affiliated with Japan’s National Public Security Commission and that he gave directions for espionage activities. The program showed an exchange between him and Nakanishi as “evidence” of those accusations.

While Nakanishi posted in Japanese, “There are only few advantages for Japanese companies (to make inroads here). The power of China is tremendous,” the passages were translated into Russian in the TV program to the effect that, “The recent attacks appear to have been a setup by the United States. The only thing I can rely on is my information network.”

According to the company owner, the exchange shown on the TV program was from several years ago, and was a reply from Nakanishi to a question by the owner regarding business advancement in Belarus, posed merely out of curiosity.

“I was just wondering if my company’s products would be in demand overseas, and it was quite a normal chat for a business manager,” the company owner claimed. “It’s beyond belief that a state-run broadcaster would tell lies so openly. I still have no clue why I was caught up in this, too.” He said that he has heard nothing from Belarusian authorities.

Speaking of Nakanishi, the company owner said, “He was trying his best to communicate Japanese culture (in Belarus). I can’t believe (the claims) that he was engaging in espionage. I hope that he will return to Japan in good health as soon as possible.”

(Japanese original by Ai Kunimoto, Foreign News Department)