Myanmar authorities have arrested a Japanese national working for retail giant Aeon for allegedly selling rice at artificially high prices, the junta said, with Tokyo demanding his immediate release.
Hiroshi Kasamatsu, director of Aeon Orange, which runs several supermarkets in Myanmar, was detained following an investigation into rice mills and supermarkets, the junta’s information team said late Sunday.
Kasamatsu and three Myanmar nationals were suspected of breaching the reference price under the Essential Supplies And Services Law and “selling rice at higher price with the aim to make economic chaos,” it said.
It did not give details on when Kasamatsu was arrested or where he was being detained.
“It is our understanding that the Japanese national in question is being interrogated at a police station in Yangon,” Japanese government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo.
A lawyer had met with Kasamatsu on Sunday and told Japanese embassy officials. . .
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