Why Russia's arrest of Japanese journalist is the latest sign of deteriorating ties between the countries.

Japanese Foreign Ministry officials were in Moscow this week in an attempt to contact a journalist arrested in Russia's far east on allegations of spying . Journalist Yuki Imai was arrested on October 14 by Russia's FSB security service in the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Sakhalin Island. Televised footage of the arrest showed FSB officers barging into his hotel room as he slept. The correspondent for the Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper was accused of attempting to obtain information on soldiers in the region, which is near the Kiril islands, a geopolitical sore spot in Russia - Japan relations. Russian authorities quickly transferred him to Lefortovo Prison in Moscow, where a court ordered him to be held in pretrial detention until at least December 12.