Chinese police arrest Japanese boy for fatal knife attack in Shenzhen

Chinese police have formally arrested a Chinese man in his 40s and are expected to prosecute him on suspicion of murder in the fatal stabbing of a Japanese schoolboy in September, diplomatic sources said on Saturday.

The Japanese government has called on China to provide details of the investigation into the killing of the 10-year-old student in Shenzhen, southern China, but Chinese authorities have not revealed the motive or any background to the case.

A file photo taken on September 19, 2024 in Shenzhen, China shows the site where a student at a Japanese school was stabbed by a man the previous day. (Kyodo)

The boy, whose father is Japanese and mother is Chinese, was stabbed on his way to school on September 18. He was treated at a hospital but died from his injuries early the next morning. Shortly after the incident, a male suspect was arrested near the school.

There is speculation that the knife attack is related to the 93rd anniversary of a Japanese bombing on a railway near Shenyang, the start of the Manchurian Incident that led to the Japanese invasion of northeastern China. However, Chinese authorities classified the case as an isolated incident.

Last month, a senior Chinese Foreign Ministry official said in a meeting with Keiichi Iwamoto, director general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Consular Affairs Bureau, that an explanation of the case would be made based on progress in the legal proceedings.

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