The government confirmed Tuesday that a Japanese employee at the consulate general in Shanghai died last year but declined to confirm a newspaper report he committed suicide and left a note indicating he was being pressured to give the Chinese information.

The man died May 6, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe told a news conference, adding the government would heed a family request and not disclose the cause or other details of the death.

Abe spoke in general terms about the government's position if a suicide takes place at a diplomatic mission.

"Generally speaking, the host country is expected to treat a consul with due respect and take every measure to prevent any breach of the consul's physical freedom and dignity. There should be no menace or exertion of illegal pressure against a consul," he said.

"And also generally speaking, if this kind of incident occurs, we deal with it appropriately, including lodging a protest against the government of the country concerned."

The Yomiuri Shimbun reported that the man, an engineer in his 40s, was in charge of official telegrams at the Shanghai consulate.

The paper said he committed suicide in May and left a note indicating he was being pressured by a Chinese man to reveal consular information, including the names of staff and the flights used to send diplomatic documents to Japan.

The Yomiuri said the Chinese man was probably an intelligence agent.