China to release Japanese pharmaceutical employee jailed on espionage charges after 3.5 years

China has announced that it will release a Japanese employee of a pharmaceutical company who had been imprisoned on espionage charges. The man had been held for roughly three and a half years before the decision was made public. The case had drawn attention from Tokyo, which had sought his release through diplomatic channels. Details of the timing and conditions of his release were not fully specified in the report. The development comes amid ongoing tensions between China and Japan over the detention of Japanese nationals.