A Japanese supermarket chain operator Aeon Co on Monday said that a senior official of a joint venture in Myanmar has been detained, with the military junta saying he was held along with 10 others for allegedly violating rules on the selling price of rice.
Aeon named the official as Hiroshi Kasamatsu, 53, an employee of Aeon Orange Co, adding it would cooperate with local authorities’ investigations while seeking support from the Japanese Embassy in Myanmar.
According to the junta, which has ruled the country since ousting its civilian government in a February 2021 coup, Kasamatsu and 10 Myanmar nationals have been held for selling rice at a price around 50 per cent to 70 per cent higher than the level mandated by the authorities.
The Japanese embassy said a lawyer who met Kasamatsu at a police station in Yangon where he is believed to have been interrogated told them he has no health issues. “We are in the process of confirming the facts, but we are calling for his early release. We will also provide necessary support,” an official from the embassy said.
Japan’s top government spokesperson Yoshimasa Hayashi said that the government is urging Myanmar’s authorities to release the official at the earliest and is communicating with the company.
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