Japanese woman in China was attacked with a stone-like object in Suzhou
A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a Suzhou subway station, Japanese media outlets said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo.
The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in both China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents.
The Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name but, citing the Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai, said she was with her child inside a subway station when the attack took place. The child was not injured, and the mother had returned home after reportedly getting treated at a hospital, NHK reported.
A phone call to the Suzhou Police went unanswered on Friday evening, and the local police were yet to release any official statement. But the Japanese news agency Kyodo said the suspect had been detained.
In Tokyo earlier Thursday, two Chinese men were seriously injured in attacks, and four male assailants wielding unspecified weapons remained at large, according to a statement released by the Chinese Embassy in Japan. The identities of the assailants were unclear.
The Chinese Embassy urged the Japanese authorities to take action to catch the assailants in the Tokyo attack and to ensure the safety and legal rights of Chinese citizens in Japan 'in response to the recent surge in xenophobic sentiment in Japanese society.'
In southern China last September, a 10-year-old Japanese student died after being stabbed by a Chinese man not far from the gate of the Shenzhen Japanese School in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. The man was sentenced to death.
In June 2024, a Japanese woman and her child were injured in an attack by a Chinese man, also in Suzhou. A Chinese bus attendant who tried to protect them from the attack was killed. The man was sentenced to death.
On Friday, the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China called for Chinese authorities to ensure Japanese citizens' safety and security in China.
'It is extremely regrettable that such an incident has happened again. Ensuring the safety of employees and their families is fundamental for doing business in China,' the statement said.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Kyodo News
3 hours ago
- Kyodo News
China movie on Japan biological warfare unit to premiere Sept. 18
BEIJING - A Chinese movie on the Imperial Japanese Army's notorious Unit 731 will be screened from Sept. 18, state-run media said Sunday, after its original release date last week passed without explanation. The new screening date falls on the 94th anniversary of the Japanese bombing of a railroad track near Shenyang -- an event that marked the start of the Manchurian Incident, leading to Japan's invasion of northeastern China. The Unit 731 movie, originally scheduled to premiere last Thursday, is one of war-themed works for release this year in China, which commemorates the 80th anniversary of what it calls its victory in the 1937-1945 War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. Millions of people online have expressed their interest in the film about the unit, which according to historians conducted biological and chemical warfare research in China during World War II. Set in China's northeastern region, the movie conveys an anti-war message and reportedly aims to "reveal the crimes" of Unit 731 through a focus on ordinary individuals. The film, which will be shown after the July 25 release of a Chinese movie themed on a massacre in Nanjing committed by Japanese troops in 1937, is feared to fan anti-Japan sentiment in the country. Last Thursday, a Japanese woman was assaulted while walking with her child at a subway station in Suzhou, near Shanghai, sustaining a non-life-threatening injury. Chinese authorities later detained a suspect allegedly involved in the incident but have not provided the details, with Chinese media not reporting on the case. On Sept. 18 last year, a 10-year-old Japanese boy was stabbed on his way to a Japanese school in Shenzhen, southern China. He died from the stab wounds the following day. The Unit 731 film was made with the cooperation of an exhibition hall dedicated to the unit in Harbin in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang as well as local publicity departments of the ruling Communist Party. The unit's research is believed to have included lethal experimentation and testing on humans. Prisoners of war were secretly experimented upon to develop, among other things, plague and cholera-based biological weapons, according to historians. The Japanese government says it has not found any evidence confirming that the unit conducted experiments on human subjects. In 1997, Japan's Supreme Court, in a ruling concerning state screeners' objection to a history textbook's description of the unit's actions in China, said "the view had been established within academic circles to an undeniable extent that Unit 731 had killed many Chinese people through biological experiments."
Yomiuri Shimbun
11 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Myanmar Military Courts Sentence 12 to Life for Human Trafficking, Including Chinese Nationals
BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar military courts have sentenced a dozen individuals — including five Chinese nationals — to life imprisonment for their involvement in multiple human trafficking cases, state-run media reported Saturday. According to the Myanma Alinn newspaper, the convictions stem from a range of offenses including the online distribution of sex videos and the trafficking of Myanmar women into forced marriages in China. In one case, five people — including two Chinese nationals identified as Lin Te and Wang Xiaofeng — were sentenced to life imprisonment by a military court in Yangon, the country's largest city, on July 29. They were found guilty under Myanmar's Anti-Trafficking in Persons law for producing sex videos involving three Myanmar couples and distributing the footage online for profit. In a separate case, the same court sentenced a woman and three Chinese nationals — Yibo, Cao Qiu Quan and Chen Huan. The group was convicted of planning to transport two Myanmar women, recently married to two of the convicted Chinese men, into China, the report said. Additionally, three other people received life sentences from a separate military court for selling a woman as a bride to China, and for attempting to do the same with another woman. In another case, a woman from Myanmar's central Magway region was given a 10-year sentence on July 30 for planning to transport two Myanmar women to be sold as brides to Chinese men, the report said. Human trafficking, particularly of women and girls lured or forced into marriages in China, remains a widespread problem in Myanmar, a country still reeling from civil war after the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. The persisting conflict in most areas of Myanmar has left millions of women and children vulnerable to exploitation. A 2018 report by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Kachin Women's Association Thailand (KWAT) — which works to prevent and respond to trafficking in northern Kachin and Shan states bordering China — estimated that about 21,000 women and girls from northern Myanmar were forced into marriage in China between 2013 and 2017. In its latest report published in December, KWAT noted a sharp decline in the number of trafficking survivors accessing its services from 2020 to 2023. It attributed the decline to the COVID-19 pandemic and border closures caused by ongoing conflict following the army takeover. However, it reported a resurgence in 2024 as people from across Myanmar began migrating to China in search of work. Maj-Gen Aung Kyaw Kyaw, a deputy minister for Home Affairs, said during a June meeting that the authorities had handled 53 cases of human trafficking, forced marriage and prostitution in 2024, 34 of which involved China, according to a report published by Myanmar's Information Ministry. The report also said that a total of 80 human trafficking cases, including 14 involving marriage deception by foreign nationals, were recorded between January and June this year.
Tokyo Reported
12 hours ago
- Tokyo Reported
Another suspected ‘Luffy' member nabbed in Manila
PHILIPPINES (TR) – Authorities here on Saturday announced the apprehension of yet another male Japanese national who is suspected member of the so-called 'Luffy' fraud ring. The arrest of Kensuke Kudo, 28, is at least the fifth made by authorities in Manila this year, reports TBS News (Aug. 3). On August 1, Philippine authorities apprehended Kudo in Taguig City, situated on the eastern shores of Metro Manila. The Luffy group is named after the popular manga for boys. It specializes in tokushu sagi , which is a type of fraud carried out on the telephone by a caller impersonating an authority figure or a victim's relative. Kensuke Kudo (X) Police had been searching for Hoshino after an arrest warrant was issued for him in January. He is suspected of working with members of the ring to swindle elderly persons. An investigation by immigration authorities also revealed that Kudo's passport expired last October, making him an illegal resident. On January 20, authorities announced the apprehension of Yuhei Tsukuda, 28, in Pampanga province. He is also a suspected member of Luffy. Later that month, they arrested 43-year-old Takashi Sasaki, another suspected Luffy member. In February, authorities apprehended Eiji Shigematsu. Two months later, authorities arrested Takuya Hoshino. Kudo is expected to be deported to Japan at some point in the future.
