Director of a Japanese supermarket chain arrested in Myanmar for price gouging

Kasamatsu and three Myanmar nationals are suspected of exceeding the reference price of the Essential Supplies and Services Act and “selling rice at a higher price to cause economic chaos,” it said.

No details were released about when Kasamatsu was arrested or where he was being held.

“As far as we know, the Japanese citizen in question is being interrogated at a police station in Yangon,” Japanese government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo.

A lawyer met with Kasamatsu on Sunday and told Japanese embassy officials “that there was nothing wrong with him,” he said.

“We … call on local authorities to release him immediately,” Hayashi said.

AFP could not reach the Japanese embassy in Yangon for comment.

An Aeon spokesman told AFP that Kasamatsu heads the raw materials division of Aeon’s local subsidiary in Myanmar.

The price of rice, a staple food in Myanmar, has more than doubled in recent months, according to traders. State media blame the El Niño weather phenomenon and hoarders in the markets.

Conflicts between the military and opponents of the 2021 coup have also disrupted rice cultivation, harvesting and transportation, analysts say.

Aeon Orange operates several supermarkets in the commercial center of Yangon.

The three arrested Myanmar citizens work for local retail companies.