A classified document shows that the Soviet Union tried to recruit the son of a Japanese prime minister as a spy, according to experts on Japan-Russia relations.
The document shows the Soviet Union tried to get detained former army officer Fumitaka Konoe, son of Fumimaro Konoe, to spy for Moscow against Japan in 1953 during the Cold War, the experts said.
It is the first known document to refer to spying in the case of Konoe, whose fate is still a mystery. He died in October 1956 just after the normalization treaty between Japan and the Soviet Union, officially from illness, but some claim he was murdered in a conspiracy.
The experts said the document could help unravel the truth about the long detainment of Konoe in Siberia, where he spent time in prison.