Japan's foreign minister meets Chinese counterpart in New York – Firstpost

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said on Monday she would meet her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi during a visit to New York to discuss the fatal knife attack on a student.

Following the attack last week in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida demanded an explanation and urged China to ensure the safety of Japanese citizens.

“The recent incident in Shenzhen, in which a child was attacked and killed at a Japanese school, was very tragic,” Kamikawa told reporters at Tokyo airport before the trip.

“We will urge China to clearly state the facts and ensure the safety of the Japanese people, especially children,” she said, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

She said Japan would spend 43 million yen ($300,000) to immediately increase security at Japanese schools in China.

Kamikawa will travel to New York for three days starting Monday to attend the United Nations General Assembly.

Meanwhile, Japan's deputy foreign minister was sent to Beijing on Monday to talk to Chinese officials about the stabbing.

Last week, Beijing expressed its “regret and sadness” over the incident, which it said was an isolated case and “could happen in any country.”

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 after imposing an import 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.