The news came on the heels of a recent revelation that two Japanese men were detained in China in May for allegedly engaging in spying in the country.
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The woman, who runs a Japanese language school in Tokyo, had visited China frequently, Kyodo News said, adding that the objective of her visits was unknown.
Japan’s national broadcaster NHK said over the weekend that the cases involve a woman in her 50s, arrested in Shanghai, and a man in his 60s, arrested in Beijing, both in June.
One of them was being held in Northeast China’s Liaoning Province, near the border with North Korea, according to Japanese media.
The Asahi Shimbun reported that the detained woman is a native Chinese but had obtained Japanese nationality.
On September 30, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said two Japanese citizens were being held in China on suspicion of espionage.
Kuroi said the two men may have been approached with a casual request, but probably not in a form that would require specific instructions or an exchange of money in return. In China, the maximum sentence for espionage is the death penalty.
In 2010, four Japanese men were detained for spying on a military base in Hebei province.
Tokyo has denied it sent spies to China.
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Observers believe that the incident will further worsen the already strained Sino-Japanese ties.
