Japan’s Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary has called for the release of a detained Japanese citizen in Iran. The detained individual is Shinnosuke Kawashima, the bureau chief of Japan’s public broadcaster NHK in Tehran.
On Wednesday, February 25, 2026, Japan’s Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary, during a press conference, demanded the release of the country’s citizen—without providing further details—who has been imprisoned in Iran since January 20, 2026. Earlier, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that Shinnosuke Kawashima, NHK’s bureau chief in Iran, had been arrested.
No information is currently available regarding the reasons for his detention or the charges against Mr. Kawashima. Iranian authorities have not issued any official response to the incident so far. However, the arrest of NHK’s bureau chief coincides with the peak of street protests in Iran.
In the first month of 2026, Iran experienced an unprecedented 20-day information blackout—the most severe in the history of the Islamic Republic. Amid the widespread anti-government protests sweeping the country, the Islamic Republic launched a new wave of judicial and security crackdowns on journalists, media outlets, and independent narrators of events; international internet access was severed, and extensive disruptions affected domestic communication networks, including mobile phones.
At present, at least nine journalists and news photographers remain imprisoned or in detention facilities across Iran: Somayeh Heydari, Pedram Alamdari, and Javad Aghajannejad in Tabriz; Hassan Abbasi in Bandar Abbas; Artin Ghazanfari in Mashhad; and Kianoush Darvishi, Mohammad Parsi, Reza Valizadeh, and Shinnosuke Kawashima in Tehran.
According to the annual report of the Defending the Free Flow of Information (DeFFI), Iranian journalists and media outlets are enduring an unprecedented period of security pressures, judicial actions, and deliberate interference in their professional activities—a situation the freedom-of-expression advocacy group has described as a “ Military posture against the free flow of information.” The report indicates that in 2025 alone, at least 225 journalists or media outlets faced judicial or security measures; 25 journalists or media managers were sentenced to a combined total of over 30 years in prison and 293 million tomans in fines; at least 148 new judicial cases were opened against journalists and media outlets; and eight media outlets were suspended.