BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s military government has arrested a Japanese businessman along with dozens of local businessmen for allegedly selling rice at prices far above officially regulated prices, state media said Monday.
According to reports, Hiroshi Kasamatsu, a director of Aeon Orange, has been arrested. Aeon Orange operates several supermarkets in Myanmar and is part of Japanese retail giant Aeon. Japanese media reports confirmed that Kasamatsu is one of the executives.
Rice is crucial as Myanmar struggles to balance its economy while a civil war disrupts efforts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The army seized power from the elected government Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, which led to nonviolent protests that developed into armed resistance.
State-run newspaper Myanma Alinn reported on Monday that the arrests for allegedly selling rice at prices 31% to 70% higher than official prices set by Myanmar’s Rice Federation included 62 suspects, 102 department stores, 53 supermarkets and superstores , 25 mills and seven other shops in major cities.
The violations could result in prison sentences of six months to three years in 11 cases, including Kasamatsu’s, and fines and tax payments in the remaining cases.
Nearly a third of people in Myanmar live in poverty and the economy is about 10% smaller than before the pandemic, according to a World Bank report last month. The displacement of more than 3 million people from their homes by fighting has created a major humanitarian crisis.
Meanwhile, the value of Myanmar’s currency, the kyat, has sunk and many companies are struggling with the gap between the central bank’s official exchange rate of 2,100 kyat to the dollar and the broader free market rate of around 4,500 kyat to the dollar. dollars. the dollar.
Japan has historically maintained warm relations with Myanmar. It has taken a softer stance on Myanmar’s current military government than many Western countries, which treat it as a pariah state for its poor human rights record and undermining of democracy and have imposed economic and political sanctions.
In Tokyo, the Japanese Minister of the Interior Yoshimasa Hayashi confirmed to reporters that a male Japanese citizen, whom he did not name, was being investigated at a police station in Yangon.
Hayashi said the Japanese government will provide him with the necessary support through the embassy and that “the Japanese government will call on local authorities to release the Japanese national as soon as possible.”
