Japan sends high-ranking official to China over fatal knife attack on boy

According to public broadcaster NHK, Japan's Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa is also planning to meet with her Chinese counterpart in New York while both are visiting the United States.

Japanese media reported that the boy was a 10-year-old Japanese citizen living in Shenzhen. Beijing's Foreign Ministry said his parents were Japanese and Chinese citizens respectively.

Police arrested a 44-year-old man suspected of stabbing the child.

It is still unclear whether the attack was politically motivated, but it occurred on September 18, the anniversary of the “Mukden Incident” or “Manchurian Incident” of 1931, known in China as National Humiliation Day.

In June, a Japanese mother and her child were injured in another knife attack in Suzhou near Shanghai. The Chinese Foreign Ministry described the incident at the time as an “isolated case.”

A 55-year-old Chinese woman died trying to stop the attacker and was honored by the local government after her death.

Relations between the two countries have deteriorated as China has become increasingly assertive in territorial disputes in the region and Japan has strengthened its security ties with the United States and its allies.

But Beijing announced last week that it would “gradually resume” imports of seafood from Japan, following a ban in August last year due to the release of water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Last week, Japan announced that a Chinese aircraft carrier had sailed between two Japanese islands near Taiwan for the first time.

Tokyo strongly condemned the incident, calling it “completely unacceptable,” while China said it had complied with international law.