Japan calls on China to protect Japanese citizens after stabbing of student

Japan's Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa speaks to reporters about an incident in which a 10-year-old Japanese student was attacked by a man at a Japanese school in Shenzhen, southern China, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Tokyo. File | Photo credit: Kyodo News via AP

Japan's top diplomat called on China to ensure the safety of Japanese citizens following the fatal stabbing attack on a Japanese schoolboy and demanded a crackdown on “baseless, malicious and anti-Japanese” social media posts that threaten the safety of children.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the attack was an isolated incident and called on Japan to respond with restraint.

Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa called on her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to conduct a full investigation into the stabbing, give Japan a clear explanation for the incident and punish the suspect, as well as take preventive measures for the future.

According to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, Ms Kamikawa said Beijing should take concrete steps to ensure the safety of Japanese living in China, especially children. The two ministers met on Monday (September 23, 2024) on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The 10-year-old boy was stabbed to death near the gate of the Shenzhen Japanese School on September 18. The attacker, a 44-year-old man, was immediately arrested and is under investigation, according to Chinese authorities. The motive for the attack was not immediately clear.

Ms Kamikawa said the attack came despite Tokyo's request to Beijing to increase security for Japanese citizens and around Japanese schools. The event came on Sept. 18, the anniversary of the 1931 Mukden Incident, which China considers the beginning of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in what is now northeast China.

On June 24, a knife attack occurred at the bus stop of a Japanese school in the southeastern city of Suzhou, killing a Chinese citizen who tried to stop the attacker and injuring a Japanese mother and her child.

At the beginning of June, a Chinese man stabbed four US university lecturers and a Chinese man who tried to intervene in a public park in Jilin in northeast China. The four lecturers from Cornell College were teaching at Beihua University. Their injuries were not life-threatening.

Ms Kamikawa also told Wang that “groundless, malicious and anti-Japanese posts on social media and other media, including those targeting Japanese schools, directly affect the safety of children and are absolutely unacceptable,” and called on China to take thorough and speedy action against them, the ministry said in a statement.

Wang said the stabbing attack was an “unintentional isolated incident” and that China would handle the case according to the law, the ministry said. It said Ms Kamikawa and Wang had agreed to continue working together to make progress on the issues as soon as possible.

“China will investigate and handle this isolated attack on a Japanese student in Shenzhen in accordance with the law and, as always, ensure the safety of all foreign citizens in China,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement released on Tuesday (September 24, 2024). “Japan should handle the matter calmly and rationally and avoid politicization and build-up.”

Security concerns are growing in the Japanese business community in China.

Vice Foreign Minister Yoshifumi Tsuge was in Beijing on Monday (September 23, 2024) for talks with his counterpart Sun Weidong and delivered a similar message of concern. Tsuge then met with representatives of the Japanese business community to hear their views on safe business operations in China.

According to Tsuge, Japan is spending 43 million yen ($300,000) to urgently strengthen security around Japanese schools and bus stops during commuter hours and plans to request additional funds to staff Japanese school buses with security personnel.

Tetsuro Honma, head of Panasonic Holdings Corp.'s Chinese subsidiary and chairman of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China, told Tsuge that the latest knife attack, like an earlier case in June, was extremely regrettable, according to the ministry.

Honma said ensuring the safety of employees and their families is crucial for Japanese companies operating in China.

About 100,000 Japanese students, workers and others live in China.