JAL cancels celebration of 50 years of flights between Japan and China, seen as inappropriate after the stabbing of a Japanese boy

Regular flights between Japan and China celebrated their 50th anniversary on Sunday. Japan Airlines Co. planned to hold a memorial ceremony at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, but decided to cancel the event after the fatal stabbing of a 10-year-old Japanese boy in Shenzhen, China, on September 18.

The ceremony would include speeches from JAL President Mitsuko Tottori and top officials from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and the Chinese Embassy in Japan, as well as a traditional Chinese performance and a commemorative banner.

“In the immediate aftermath of the incident, we decided that a celebratory event was not appropriate,” JAL’s PR department said.

On Sunday at Beijing Capital International Airport in China, a banner reading “Thank you for boarding” in Japanese and Chinese was displayed for passengers on two JAL flights to Haneda.