Tokyo confirms Japanese national held by Iran freed

Iran freed a Japanese national held since January, Tokyo said Tuesday, with Kyodo News reporting that the person was believed to be the Tehran bureau chief of broadcaster NHK.

It was the second release after the Japanese government announced last month that another Japanese national was freed by Iran.

"The Japanese embassy in Iran has confirmed that a Japanese national who was detained by Iranian authorities on January 20 was released on April 6 local time," government spokesman Minoru Kihara said.

"The ambassador in Iran directly met that person after release and confirmed they were in good health," Kihara told reporters.

Contacted by AFP, NHK was not immediately available to confirm the report.

Media reports had said earlier that the NHK bureau chief arrested on January 20 was sent to a prison known for holding political detainees.

A Japanese government spokesperson at the time told reporters that a Japanese citizen had been detained on that date but declined to give more details.

NHK had also declined to comment.

In February, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on Iran to immediately release Shinnosuke Kawashima, the Tehran bureau chief of Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, and to return confiscated property.

CPJ said Kawashima was arrested on January 20 by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and initially held at a detention facility in northern Tehran before being transferred to Evin Prison on February 23, citing a source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The group said the passport and personal devices of an NHK videographer were also confiscated, and that another staff member left Iran after repeated summonses.

CPJ’s regional director Sara Qudah said the arrest and pressure on staff reflected “a deliberate effort” to silence independent reporting.