TOKYO, SEPT 23 – Japan’s vice foreign minister will discuss the fatal stabbing of a schoolboy with Beijing today, according to Tokyo’s foreign ministry.
From Sunday to Tuesday, Japan’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Yoshifumi Tsuge will visit Beijing “to address the death of a child at the Shenzhen Japanese School,” the ministry said in a statement yesterday.
After last week’s attack in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida demanded an explanation and urged China to ensure the safety of Japanese citizens.
Beijing expressed regret and sadness over what it said was an isolated incident that “could happen in any country”.
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa is also arranging to meet her Chinese counterpart in New York when they both visit the US city, according to the public broadcaster. NHK.
Japanese media reported that the boy was a 10-year-old Japanese national living in Shenzhen, while Beijing’s foreign ministry said his parents were Japanese and Chinese, respectively.
Police arrested a 44-year-old man suspected of stabbing the child.
Although it remains unclear whether the attack was politically motivated, it took place on September 18, the anniversary of the ‘Mukden Incident’ or ‘Manchuria Incident’ of 1931, known in China as a day of national humiliation.
Relations between the countries have worsened as China toughens on territorial disputes while Japan boosts security ties with the United States and its allies.
But Beijing announced last week that it would ‘gradually resume’ seafood imports from Japan after a ban in August last year over water releases from the Fukushima nuclear plant. – AFP
