BEIJING: A Japanese business person was sentenced Wednesday to three and a half years in prison in China on espionage charges, according to the Japanese embassy in Beijing. The embassy did not identify the man, who has been detained since March 2023. Japan’s Kyodo news agency described him as a man in his 60s and an employee of Astellas Pharma Inc, a major Japanese pharmaceutical company. The man was charged with espionage in August and his first hearing was held in November but no details were released. The Beijing no. 2 Intermediate People’s Court did not immediately make an announcement after handing down the sentence. Kenji Kanasugi, the Japanese ambassador to China, was present at the ruling but Japanese reporters were not allowed inside the courtroom, Kyodo reported. The Japanese government has protested a series of detentions of its citizens in China. An embassy statement called the sentencing “regrettable” and said the detentions are “one of the biggest obstacles to improving people-to-people exchanges and public sentiment between Japan and China.” At total of 17 Japanese, including the defendant in this case, have been detained since 2014, when China enacted the anti-spying law. Five remain in China, Kyodo reported.