Askume BEIJING, Sept 20 – After a 10-year-old Japanese boy was stabbed to death in Shenzhen, China , some Japanese companies in China have offered their employees and families to go home, Japanese company executives and employees in Beijing said on Friday.
Wednesday’s stabbing was the second near a Japanese school in China in recent months and coincided with the anniversary of the 1931 incident that sparked the Sino-Japanese War.
Japanese embassy officials met with the Japan Chamber of Commerce and the Beijing Japanese School late Thursday to discuss security issues for the Japanese community in China, the embassy said in a statement.
Japanese Ambassador to Beijing Kenji Kanasugi also spoke to Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong and asked Beijing to strengthen security measures, the statement said.
The embassy did not elaborate on the transfers, but a senior Japanese official in Beijing said some companies were offering their employees the option.
The embassy did not respond to a Askume request for comment.
Employees at four Japanese companies also said some large Chinese companies have given Japanese workers and their families the option of returning home at company expense, or are considering doing so.
Officials and employees refused to give any additional information.
“This is a really big blow. This is another case of a Japanese school being targeted,” the executive told Askume.
“In terms of people leaving temporarily, yes, that is true and many Japanese companies will do that,” he said. “We need to know why this is happening again … otherwise we won’t be able to live and work here.”
The Japanese Embassy said Japan urged the Chinese government to make every effort to ensure the safety of Japanese citizens in Japan and provide detailed information about the incident.
China’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday offered condolences to the victim’s family and described the crime as a “personal matter.”
An employee of a Japanese media company in Beijing said: “Our TV station has also issued a notice saying that if employees’ family members want to return to China, the TV station will help subsidize them. But at the moment, none of my colleagues have any plans to go home.”
China ranks first in the number of overseas bases for Japanese companies, with about 31,000 companies in the $19 trillion economy, according to Japan’s Foreign Ministry.
Tension
Concerns over personal safety arising from the Shenzhen stabbing incident have further complicated already strained bilateral relations.
In 2023, diplomatic relations between the two countries soured after Beijing detained a Japanese businessman on suspicion of espionage.
After the incident, some Chinese netizens questioned whether China’s nationalistic education had fostered anti-Japanese sentiment. Despite heavy censorship on other topics, anti-Japanese comments are often popular on Chinese social media.
A Chinese news website that often takes an aggressive, nationalistic stance criticized netizens on Friday for “blaming (criminal acts) on ‘hate public opinion’ or ‘hate propaganda,’ which is wrong, and ‘even blaming China’s practices of patriotic education.'”
Observer.com commented: “Using Japan to correct its historical course… is a reasonable move.”
Historians estimate that during World War II, Japan invaded and occupied parts of neighboring countries, killing about 14 million Chinese and causing more than 100 million to become refugees.
