A Chinese police car patrols near the scene where a boy was stabbed while walking to a Japanese school in Shenzhen, China, on Thursday.
13:23 JST, September 20, 2024
Beijing (Jiji Press) — Some Japanese companies are now allowing their foreign workers in China to return home temporarily, after Wednesday’s fatal stabbing of a Japanese schoolboy sent shockwaves through the country.
The latest stabbing took place in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, southern China, and followed an attack in June that injured a Japanese woman and her child and killed a Chinese woman in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, eastern China.
“Safety and security are the basic conditions for doing business,” a senior official at a major manufacturer based in Beijing said angrily. “We cannot ignore the fact that Japanese citizens have been targeted one after the other.”
The manufacturer is considering temporarily sending family members of its expats back to Japan.
Panasonic Holdings Corp. has decided to temporarily allow Japanese employees to return home and cover related expenses not only for them but also for their family members. The company plans to launch a counseling service for its employees regarding the latest incident.
Among Japanese companies operating in Beijing, a major automaker plans to interview workers raising children about their concerns. A parts maker will temporarily suspend business travel to China.
“Our company has instructed us to stop holding events involving Japanese citizens,” a company official in the Chinese capital said.
Tetsuro Honma, head of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China, which includes Japanese companies and other entities operating in China, attended an extraordinary meeting with senior officials from the Japanese Embassy in China on Thursday.
“Member companies are starting to take measures in response to the latest incident,” Honma said. “We will share information with member companies.”
Honma requested the Japanese and Chinese governments to promptly provide detailed information, including the background of the incident.
The official from the major manufacturer pointed out that the motive of the suspect in the June incident is still unknown. “It is essential to find out the truth so that safety measures can be implemented,” the official said, adding: “In the current situation, we cannot decide to expand investment in China.”
