A woman and a man were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of exporting goods to North Korea in violation of a ban on all trade with the hermit state, police said.
The pair were identified as Noriko Nakanishi, 62, a business executive from Kobe, and Masaki Ikeyama, 73, a company employee from Osaka.
The police said the pair are the first to be arrested on suspicion of illegal exports to North Korea after the government imposed the all-out ban on trade with the country in June in response to a nuclear test the month before.
In August, two months after Japan's sanctions were tightened to include the ban on all exports, Nakanishi and Ikeyama allegedly exported some ¥5.9 million worth of food, clothes and daily necessities to North Korea, the police said.
An investigation also determined the pair exported about ¥160,000 worth of cosmetics, which are considered luxury items, from Kobe to North Korea through Dalian, China, in October 2008 without obtaining permission from the minister of economy, trade and industry.
At that time, a ban was in place on exports of luxury items to North Korea.
The importer was a Pyongyang-based North Korean trading house that is on a list of firms that the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry suspects are involved in North Korea's nuclear arms program.