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The Yomiuri Shimbun A Japanese school in Beijing is seen with a barricade installed at the entrance on Sunday.
Jiji Press
19:59 JST, August 27, 2023
BEIJING (Jiji Press) — Stones and eggs have been thrown into the premises of Japanese schools in China, it was learned Sunday.
No injuries to students or damage to school buildings have been confirmed, according to sources familiar with the incidents.
Relevant Japanese consulates-general have urged the Chinese side to tighten security at the schools in the wake of the possible harassment following the start of the release into the sea of tritium-containing treated water from Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s disaster-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station in northeastern Japan.
On the afternoon of Thursday, when the water release started, a Chinese man threw stones into the premises of a Japanese school in Qingdao, Shandong Province, eastern China. The man was seized by security guards. There is information that the man was saying something about the water release.
At a Japanese school in Suzhou in neighboring Jiangsu Province, security guards on patrol found several eggs on its premises Friday morning.
The Japanese Embassy in Beijing called on Japanese nationals in China to act with caution, such as not speaking Japanese loudly while going out, saying that the possibility of unexpected incidents happening following the start of the treated water discharge cannot be ruled out.
The Yomiuri Shimbun Police officers stand guard in front of the Japanese Embassy in Beijing on Sunday.
Before being released into the ocean, the treated water is diluted with seawater to substantially reduce the concentration of tritium, a radioactive material.
In 2012, anti-Japanese demonstrations erupted across China in protest against the Japanese government’s nationalization of the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea the same year. Stones and plastic bottles were thrown at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, and Japanese schools were temporarily closed. The islands are claimed by China.
No large-scale demonstrations have been confirmed in connection with the release of the treated water from the Fukushima No. 1 plant.
But some Chinese people are calling for boycotting Japanese products while harassing phone calls have been made to Japanese schools in China, according to the sources.
Anti-Japanese sentiment may further intensify in September in the run-up to the 78th anniversary of China’s World War II victory over Japan and the 92nd anniversary of the 1931 railway bombing that led to the so-called Manchurian Incident, which marked the start of Japan’s invasion of China, pundits said.
