Asia-Pacific

Japanese Schools in China to Have Security Guards on School Buses

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
Security personnel are seen as a vehicle enters a Japanese school in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, on Oct. 17.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

19:58 JST, November 25, 2024

The Foreign Ministry plans to move up its schedule for placing security guards on school buses for Japanese schools in China, following a series of attacks that included the death of a Japanese schoolboy in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, in September.

The ministry plans to implement the measure, originally planned to start from April 2024, sometime before the end of March by including the relevant expenses in the fiscal 2024 supplementary budget.

An expense to deploy such guards were included in the budget request for fiscal 2025 following the attack on a Japanese mother and her child in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, in June, but was brought forward after the Shenzhen attack.

The supplementary budget will also include costs to dispatch security guards around Japanese schools. Since the Shenzhen attack, up to six guards have been stationed on an emergency basis at each of the 12 Japanese schools in China, and this measure will be continue.