A court in the Chinese province of Jiangsu has sentenced a 45-year-old Japanese man to death for transporting illegal drugs for sale, a source close to Japan-China relations said Thursday.
The man is planning to appeal the decision by the court in Nantong city, the source said. He is believed to belong to a group of several people who committed the crime.
He was arrested in spring last year for allegedly possessing stimulant drugs and was later indicted on charges of transporting drugs.
China executed four Japanese nationals for drug smuggling in 2010. In July, a Japanese man in his 50s was executed in connection with stimulant drug smuggling.