Some Japanese companies in China have offered to repatriate their employees and their families after a 10-year-old Japanese boy was fatally stabbed in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, Reuters reports. quoted by News.bg.
Wednesday's stabbing was the second such attack near Japanese schools in China in recent months and came on the anniversary of the 1931 incident that sparked the Sino-Japanese war.
The Japanese Embassy held a meeting with the Japan Chamber of Commerce and the Japanese School in Beijing to discuss the safety of the Japanese community in China. Japan's ambassador to Beijing, Kenji Kanasugi, spoke with China's vice foreign minister, Sun Weidong, and asked Beijing to step up security measures.
The embassy made no mention of relocation, but a Beijing-based Japanese executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, said some companies were offering that option to their employees. Officials at four Japanese companies also confirmed that some large firms in China are offering Japanese employees and their families the option of being relocated at the company's expense, or are considering doing so.
"It's a really big shock," said the executive director. "And this is yet another case in which a Japanese school has been attacked."
"As for temporary leave, yes, that is true and many Japanese companies will do it," he added. "We need to know why this happened again; otherwise we cannot live and work here."
The Chinese Foreign Ministry expressed its condolences to the victim's family and called the crime an "isolated case." Japan urged the Chinese government to do everything possible to ensure the safety of Japanese citizens in the country and to provide details of the incident.
On Wednesday, a 44-year-old man stabbed the 10-year-old boy on his way to school. The child died a day later. The attacker admitted attacking the boy and was previously arrested in 2015 on charges of destroying public telecommunications facilities.