Japanese police arrested former SoftBank Telecom Group employee on suspicion of selling trade secrets to Russia.

Yutaka Araki, 48, is suspected of stealing proprietary information from the mobile giant SoftBank to supply Russian officials.

Araki held "trade secrets in a company computer server related to communications on February 18 last year, violating unfair anti-competition laws," Tokyo police said in a statement. Japanese authorities did not name the company, but local media said it was SoftBank Corp, a unit of SoftBank Group.

Araki told police that he received money for providing information in data storage devices to Russian officials. Police suspect commercial officials in Russia's diplomatic mission in Tokyo were involved in the espionage, Jiji Press and several Japanese media reported. Police have asked the Russian Embassy to bring two officials to appear.

Responding to the incident, the Russian Embassy in Japan made a statement on Facebook, describing the reports as "unfortunate" and "cheap spying allegations".

SoftBank said it was cooperating with the investigating agency, confirming that "no information is highly confidential, such as the customer's personal information or anything that violates the confidentiality of communications, has been compromised. ".