appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Julian Ryall

Concern that foreign spies can operate with impunity in Japan has deepened following a media report that dozens of Russian agents ordered to leave Western European countries have entered Tokyo and are buying components for Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
The New York Times reported on Sunday that Moscow’s agents were taking advantage of Tokyo’s failure to enact a law specifically designed to combat espionage and the large number of companies manufacturing components critical to the Kremlin’s war machine.
The coveted parts include microchips, transmitters and the cutting-edge machinery required to make advanced weapons systems.
The report identified Maksim Vladimirovich Filchenkov, ostensibly an employee of Russian airline Aeroflot, as leading the operation in Japan.
James Brown, a professor of international relations specialising in Russian affairs at Temple University’s Tokyo campus, told This Week in Asia that what stood out in the report was how the alleged spy was unmasked, suggesting it could have been a tip-off from a foreign intelligence agency.
“There have been no direct flights to Russia for the last four years, so what was he doing here?” said Brown, author of the 2025 book Cracking the Crab: Russian espionage against Japan, from Peter the Great to Richard Sorge.
“I wonder if a foreign agency just got frustrated that there is so much espionage activity going on in Japan that is contributing to dual-use goods being funnelled to Russia and that Japan is not doing enough to stop it.”
He said the information sharing could have been a calculated move that “forces the Japanese authorities to take some action”, and warned that evidence of the technology Moscow was accessing was damning.

Vladyslav Vlasiuk, the Ukrainian official overseeing sanctions policy, told Kyodo News in late June that electronic components made by Japanese firms had been recovered from around 90 per cent of the Russian cruise and ballistic missiles fired at Ukraine, as well as from drones.
According to Yakov Zinberg, a professor of international relations at Tokyo’s Kokushikan University, the revelation that Russian agents have been able to enter Japan claiming to be diplomats, businessmen or working for Russian companies, such as Aeroflot, but then set about obtaining sensitive technology without intervention from Japanese authorities, will be “embarrassing” to Tokyo.
It comes just six months after Japanese police submitted documents to prosecutors identifying a former official of Russia’s trade representation in Japan as having violated unfair competition laws. The man, who was not named, allegedly paid a Japanese employee of a machine tool manufacturer for information on its products.
Japanese authorities only belatedly learned the Japanese employee had first met the Russian in 2023 and were unable to detain Moscow’s agent because he had left the country 10 months earlier.
The Times article claimed Japan had become “a crucial part of the Russian war effort”.
Quoting officials from five Western intelligence agencies, the report said the operation was being spearheaded by Filchenkov, who was in fact Moscow’s most senior 20th Directorate official in Japan. The agency is controlled by the GRU, or the primary intelligence directorate of the Russian armed forces.
Describing Japan as a “spy paradise”, the report claimed Filchenkov arrived in Tokyo in February 2024 and quickly set up links with logistics firms to help ship goods to Russia, either by using falsified shipping records or via third countries, frequently Vietnam.
Proco Air was identified as one of the firms carrying out shipments, although owner Takehiko Miki has denied being aware that Filchenkov was linked to Russian intelligence or that he sent prohibited items to Russia.
While US journalists had traced Miki and evidence of his company’s role in shipments to Russia, he said Japanese authorities had never contacted him.
Japan’s foreign ministry has not commented on the case.

Brown said Japan’s delay in acting against agents from Russia and other rival nations had historical roots, but the current administration was trying to rectify the issue.
“Japan was a police state up until 1945, and after that they wanted to have a democratic system so the security services could not have too much power again,” he said.
That “overcorrection” left Japan open to significant threats because current laws did not explicitly state that engaging in espionage was illegal, Brown added.
That is changing, however, with Prime Minister’s Sanae Takaichi’s government passing a bill in May to create a national intelligence bureau that will meet for the first time this month. The intention is to follow that with legislation outlawing spying and creating an external intelligence agency.
“There is going to be lots of pushback from the left to these initiatives and claims that Japan is ‘going back to the dark days of the 1930s’, so in that sense having this spy story break right now is quite helpful to the government,” Brown said.
Zinberg, who is originally from St Petersburg, agreed that Russian agents were “at ease here in Japan because there is still no legislation against espionage”.
“It is much easier and safer for them to operate here than in Europe and they have access to lots of companies making the parts they need for their missiles and drones,” he said.
According to Zinberg, the operation is likely linked closely to Moscow’s large embassy in Tokyo and may also involve individuals in various public and private positions in Japan, including those who could surreptitiously smuggle items out of the country using falsified paperwork.

Japan’s security allies had good reason to be alarmed at this latest revelation, he warned.
“Europe is going to be very worried indeed and something like this is going to leave a lasting impression,” he said.
“I think this is going to significantly affect Japan’s security relationships moving forward.”
Observers point out that partners are likely to become increasingly wary about secrets leaking from Japanese companies engaged in joint development of advanced weapons, such as the Global Combat Air Programme with Britain and Italy.
Ukraine could also use the unmasking of Moscow’s agents in Japan to its own advantage, Zinberg said.
“I see Ukraine making very good use of it,” he said. “They are going to propagate this news – as they have done previously – to encourage Japan and its companies to take better measures to stop the transfer of these items.”


China’s collection of stock stamp duty jumps more than 80% as AI frenzy boosts trading

Japan asks for US$43 million to weed out cherry tree-devouring longhorn beetle

Mariko Mori’s ‘All That Shines’ at Mori Art Museum: inside her landmark Tokyo exhibition

Style Edit: 45R marks 20 years in Ginza with new 4-storey flagship store

Japan

Is Japan a ‘spy paradise’ fuelling Russia’s war machine?

The entrance to the defence ministry of Japan in Tokyo. Photo: AP

Russian servicemen train at an undisclosed location in Ukraine earlier in July. Photo: EPA/Russian Defence Ministry Press Service 

A Russian serviceman launching a reconnaissance drone at an undisclosed location in Ukraine earlier in July. Photo: EPA/Russian Defence Ministry Press Service 

Japan’s security allies are likely to become increasingly wary about secrets being leaked from Japanese companies engaged in joint development of advanced weapons, observers say. Photo: Shutterstock

Nasa knows how to deflect an asteroid. Can Japan’s Hayabusa2 pull it off?

The Hayabusa2 space probe makes a close fly-by of the asteroid Torifune, in this illustration by Akihiro Ikeshita. Photo: Ikeshita/JAXA/Kyodo

A view of the asteroid Torifune during a fly-by of the Hayabusa2 space probe. Photo: Jiji Press/AFP/JAXA

Hayabusa2 flies by an asteroid in 2014. Photo: DLR/dpa

Japan aims to catch up on drone warfare by tapping Ukraine’s experience

Japanese Self-Defence Force’s SOTEN drones fly  during a drill with US Marines in Yufu, Oita prefecture, Japan, on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

An aerial drone belonging to the Ukrainian military operate near Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine. Photo: Kyodo

A Chinese coastguard vessel sails near a Japanese coastguard vessel off Uotsuri Island, one of the disputed Diaoyu Islands, in 2024. Photo: Kyodo/Reuters

Japan’s new spy agency receives FBI backing with eyes on China and Russia

Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi waves as she departs from Canberra on May 5 after a three-day official visit to Australia. Photo: AFP

Why Russian spies find Japan such an easy target: ‘people are so polite’

People visit an observation tower in a suburb of Tokyo on Monday. Japan is pushing to strengthen its laws against spying. Photo: AFP

Japanese 10,000 yen banknotes. The employee reportedly received about 700,000 yen in cash from a spy. Photo: EPA

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's government has been pushing for new anti-espionage legislation. Photo: Kyodo

Japan’s industrial technologies have long made the country a prime target for foreign agents. Photo: Shutterstock

This Week in Asia

Politics

News

Asia

East Asia

A New York Times article claims Maksim Vladimirovich Filchenkov, a top Russian official, is leading the covert operation in Japan


A New York Times article claims Maksim Vladimirovich Filchenkov, a top Russian official, is leading the covert operation in Japan.


Is Japan a ‘spy paradise’ fuelling Russia’s war machine?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}A New York Times article claims Maksim Vladimirovich Filchenkov, a top Russian official, is leading the covert operation in Japan

A New York Times article claims Maksim Vladimirovich Filchenkov, a top Russian official, is leading the covert operation in Japan