Japan urges China to protect Japanese citizens after schoolboy stabbing incident

Japan demands China ensure safety of Japanese citizens after fatal stabbing, urging crackdown on anti-Japanese social media posts.

Japan’s top diplomat asked China to ensure the safety of Japanese citizens there after the fatal stabbing of a Japanese schoolboy and demanded a crackdown on what she called “groundless, malicious and anti-Japanese” social media posts that threaten children’s safety.

China’s Foreign Ministry said the attack was an isolated case and urged Japan to react calmly.

Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa asked her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, conduct a full investigation into the stabbing and provide a clear explanation to Japan about what happened, and to punish the suspect and implement preventive measures for the future.

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

The 10-year-old boy was stabbed on September 18 near the gate of the Shenzhen Japanese School. The attacker, identified as a 44-year-old man, was arrested on the spot and is being investigated, according to Chinese officials. No motive for the attack was immediately clear.

Ms. Kamikawa has said the attack occurred despite Tokyo’s request to Beijing for increased security for Japanese citizens and around Japanese schools ahead of the Sept. 18 anniversary of the Mukden Incident in 1931, which China marks as the beginning of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, now northeast China.

On June 24th, a knife attack at a school bus stop for a Japanese school in the southeastern city of Suzhou killed a Chinese national who was trying to stop the attacker and injured a Japanese mother and her child.