A 50-year-old Japanese man was executed Friday, after having been convicted by the Intermediate Court of Dalian of trafficking in illegal drugs.

The execution was carried out after the man was allowed to see his family, who reportedly visited him in jail the day before the execution was carried out.

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The information was announced by a Japanese embassy official in Beijing, according to a report by the AFP.

"Our office in Dalian was informed this morning that the Intermediate Court of Dalian had executed a condemned Japanese," the embassy official said. He said the case "was related to drugs," without elaborating.

The official also declined to identify the convict for privacy reasons. Court officials in Dalian in the northeastern province of Liaoning declined to confirm or deny that such an execution has been carried out.

Japanese foreign ministry officials said the man  was reportedly sentenced to death in December 2012, and the ruling became final in August last year.

Japanese news agency NHK reported that prior to the execution, the Dalian Intermediate People's Court had sent notifications to the Japanese Consulate in the city, indicating that it would carry out the death penalty on a Japanese drug trafficker. The Japanese government reportedly had gone through the Japanese Consulate in Beijing to convey to Chinese authorities its desire that the death sentence not be carried out.

Friday's execution becomes the fifth of a Japanese citizen in China in recent years. In 2010, four Japanese men were put to death for illegal drug-related cases. They were identified as Mitsunobu Akano, 65, Teruo Takeda, 67, Hironori Ukai, 48, and Katsuo Mori, 67.

In Tokyo, Japanese minister Fumio Kishida told reporters, "What penalties should be imposed for what crimes is a domestic matter for China." But he added, "Japan has told China that we have a high level of interest in a Japanese national's execution in the country."

ensions between China and Japan are high owing to several issues including wartime history and disputes over some islands in the East China Sea.

TagsDalian, Liaoning, Death Sentence