According to writer Winfried Lüdecke, Reilly quickly became an obvious target of suspicion by Russian authorities at Port Arthur. Thereafter, he discovered one of his business subordinates was an agent of Russian counter-espionage and chose to leave the region. Upon departing Port Arthur, Reilly travelled to Imperial Japan in the company of an unidentified woman where he was handsomely paid by the Japanese government for his prior intelligence services. If he made a detour to Japan, presumably to be paid for his espionage, he could not have stayed very long, for by February 1905 he appeared in Paris. By the time he had returned to Europe from the Far East, Reilly "had become a self-confident international adventurer" who was "fluent in several languages" and whose intelligence services were highly desired by various great powers. At the same time, he was described as possessing "a foolhardy adventurous nature" prone to taking unnecessary risks. This latter trait would later result in him being nicknamed "reckless" by other British agents.