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Takahiro Suzuki / The Yomiuri Shimbun A woman offers flowers and fruit at a Japanese school in Shenzhen, China, on Wednesday.
By Takahiro Suzuki and Akiko Yoshinaga / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondents
20:00 JST, September 26, 2024
SHENZHEN / BEIJING — The motive for the fatal stabbing of a 10-year-old Japanese schoolboy in Shenzhen, China, remained unclear on Wednesday, a week after the incident occurred. Japan has demanded China uncover the truth, while China has not offered a detailed explanation and has continued to call it an “isolated incident.”
The boy was stabbed by a Chinese man on his way to a Japanese school on Sept. 18. On Wednesday, Chinese people came one after another to the school to offer flowers, and more than 2,500 bouquets had been left by Monday.
“We need to clarify the cause of the incident to prevent it from happening again,” a male postgraduate student said.
The school resumed classes online on Monday. It plans to devise safety measures in early October and resume in-person classes, but the safety of students walking to school remains an issue.
The Japanese Foreign Ministry has allocated ¥43 million from this fiscal year’s budget to strengthen security at all Japanese schools in China. But, “We cannot give clear instructions on what measures to take” if the motive is unknown, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Yoshifumi Tsuge said.
‘Don’t leak his motive’
Ichiro Ohara / The Yomiuri Shimbun Police officers stand near a Japanese school in Shenzhen, China, on Friday.
The 44-year-old suspect in the case has been detained by police for investigation.
According to witnesses, after stabbing the boy, the man admitted his crime to police officers who rushed to the scene, and he was taken into custody without incident. He seems not to have said anything at the site of the incident that would indicate his motive, and the police have been left to investigate. The question is whether the boy was targeted because he was Japanese.
The Chinese side, however, said it was an “isolated incident,” two days after the stabbing. According to a Hong Kong media source, the Shenzhen city police have been instructed by senior departments “not to leak the man’s motive.” It seems that the Chinese authorities are extremely sensitive about the handling of the motive.
In June, three people, including a Japanese woman and her child, were attacked by a knife-wielding Chinese man in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. Four Americans were also stabbed by a Chinese man in Jilin, Jilin Province.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry also called the attacks “isolated incidents” and gave no further explanation. A Japanese government official suspects that China will try to sweep the Shenzhen stabbing under the rug in the same way.
Political concerns
Already, China seems to be drawing things to a close. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said at a press conference Monday that “The two sides [Japan and China] recognized each other’s effort to properly and calmly handle the tragic incident, and agreed to maintain communication to prevent negative impact of the individual case on the bilateral ties.”
Japanese Ambassador to China Kenji Kanasugi met with the heads of Dalian and Liaoning Province separately on Tuesday and Wednesday. During the meetings, Kanasugi said that Japan is asking for the truth about the incident to be found, school security be tightened and extreme comments on the internet be controlled.
Despite high anxiety and a sense of crisis in the Japanese community and at Japanese firms, China may choose not to reveal the details of the case for political reasons.
