A 10-year-old student at the Shenzhen Japanese School in southern China has died after being stabbed on Wednesday, Japanese officials confirmed.
The boy succumbed to his injuries early Thursday morning, just one day after the brutal attack.
The suspect, a 44-year-old man identified as Zhong, was arrested on the spot by local authorities. The motive for the attack remains unclear, and Chinese police have yet to provide further details.
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa condemned the incident, calling it “despicable” and urging Beijing to provide an explanation as soon as possible. “This should never happen in any country,” Kamikawa stated. While the nationality of the victim has not been officially confirmed, the Shenzhen Japanese School caters to students with Japanese nationality, according to its website.
Concerns have been raised that nationalist sentiment in China may be contributing to rising violence against foreigners. The attack comes just months after a Japanese mother and her child were targeted in Suzhou, a city in eastern China, near another Japanese school. That incident led to the death of a Chinese national who tried to protect the Japanese victims.
Although Beijing has dismissed these attacks as “isolated incidents,” the Japanese embassy in Beijing has called for stronger measures to prevent such tragedies from occurring again.
The stabbing in Shenzhen coincides with the anniversary of the Mukden Incident in 1931, an event that marked the start of Japan’s invasion of Manchuria, which led to a 14-year war with China. Some observers have linked the timing of the attack to lingering anti-Japanese sentiment in China, which has been exacerbated by decades of historical grievances and territorial disputes between the two nations.
A former Japanese diplomat, Shingo Yamagami, blamed long-standing anti-Japan rhetoric in Chinese education for the attack. “This has cost the precious life of a Japanese child,” Yamagami wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
In the wake of the tragedy, several Japanese schools in China have heightened security measures.
The Guangzhou Japanese School, for instance, has canceled some activities and warned parents and students to avoid speaking Japanese loudly in public. Earlier this year, the Japanese government requested $2.5 million to hire security guards for school buses in China.
Chinese officials have reiterated their commitment to ensuring the safety of all foreign nationals within the country. Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, stated that the stabbing in Shenzhen is still under investigation, and authorities will take “effective measures” to protect foreigners living in China.