(Bloomberg) -- Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi urged his Chinese counterpart to quickly release an employee of Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma Inc. detained in China.  

“I made a strong request based on our country’s strict position that the Japanese national be released early,” Hayashi said at a news conference in Beijing on Sunday after three hours of talks with Foreign Minister Qin Gang. 

Hayashi said he expressed “serious concern” during the meeting over China’s military activities, including ones involving Russia, around Japan as well as a set of disputed islands in the East China Sea. Hayashi declined to comment on the outlook or on what Qin told him in response.

The official Xinhua News Agency didn’t mention the detained person in a report about the foreign ministers’ meeting. Qin encouraged Japan to “continue to write a new chapter of mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Japan.”

Read more: Japan Seeks Release of Drugmaker’s Worker Detained in China

More than a dozen Japanese nationals have been detained in China since 2015, according to Kyodo News and other Japanese media. Eight people have returned to Japan, seven are still in China facing trial or serving time, while one has died, the Mainichi newspaper reported last month. Five of them have been found guilty by China of endangering national security, the paper said.

NHK and other Japanese media reported over the weekend that the Astellas employee was in his 50s. He had worked for more than 20 years in China and was planning to return at the end of the month, FNN reported. He was detained in March for violating local law, according to the reports. 

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in parliament on Monday that his country would continue to call for the early release of the person.

--With assistance from Yuji Okada and Jing Li.

(Updates with Xinhua report on the meeting and with Kishida comments to lawmakers.)

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.