Japanese Foreign Ministry officials were in Moscow this week in an attempt to contact a journalist arrested in Russia's far east on spying claims .

Journalist Yuki Imai was arrested on October 14 by Russia's FSB security service in the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Sakhalin Island. Televised footage of the arrest showed FSB officers barging into his hotel room as he slept.

The correspondent for the Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper was accused of attempting to obtain information on soldiers in the region, which is near the Kiril islands, a geopolitical sore spot in Russia - Japan relations.

Russian authorities quickly transferred him to Lefortovo Prison in Moscow, where a court ordered him to be held in pre-trial detention until at least December 12. If convicted, 34-year-old Imai faces up to 20 years in jail, according to the International Federation of Journalists, which has called for his immediate release.

Officials of the Japanese embassy in Moscow have been refused access to Imai.…