A 10-year-old student at a Japanese school in southern China has died a day after being stabbed.
Japanese officials said the boy, enrolled at a Japanese school in Shenzhen, died from his injuries early Thursday morning.
According to local police, the 44-year-old man who attacked him, surnamed Zhong, was arrested at the scene.
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa described the attack as “despicable” and said Tokyo had demanded an explanation from Beijing “as soon as possible”.
“This should never happen in any country,” he added.
Neither side confirmed the nationality of the victims, but the school’s website describes it as a school for “Japanese children of Japanese nationality.”
The motive for the attack was not immediately known, but some observers have expressed concern that nationalist sentiment in China could spill over into increased violence against foreigners.
In June, a man targeted a Japanese mother and her child in the eastern city of Suzhou. The attack also occurred near a Japanese school. Leading to the deaths of Chinese citizens We tried to protect Japanese visitors.
Beijing called it an “isolated incident”, but the Japanese embassy in Beijing urged the Chinese government to “ensure that such incidents do not happen again”.
Early June, Four American teachers stabbed to death A city in the northern part of Jilin Province.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Lin Jian told a news conference Wednesday that the stabbing incident in Shenzhen was still under investigation.
“China will continue to take effective measures to protect the safety of all foreigners in China,” he added.
Some have pointed out that the stabbing incident took place on the anniversary of the infamous Manchurian Incident, in which Japan staged an explosion in 1931 to justify its invasion of Manchuria, sparking a 14-year war with China.
Relations between the two countries have long been strained. For decades, the two sides have clashed over issues ranging from historical grievances to territorial disputes.
A former Japanese diplomat said Wednesday that the Shenzhen attack was “the result of many years of anti-Japanese education” in Chinese schools.
“This cost the precious lives of Japanese children,” Shingo Yamagami, the former Japanese ambassador to Australia, wrote on X.
Some Japanese schools in China have contacted parents and put them on high alert following the stabbing incident.
The Guangzhou Japanese School has canceled some activities and banned speaking Japanese loudly in public places.
Earlier this year, the Japanese government requested about $2.5m (£1.9m) to hire school bus guards in China.
