Japan's top diplomat considers talks with his Chinese counterpart over the killing of a boy

TOKYO (Kyodo) — Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa is considering meeting with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi this week to discuss, among other things, the stabbing death of a Japanese schoolboy in China and the lifting of a ban on seafood imports from Japan, diplomatic sources said Sunday.

If the talks go ahead, Kamikawa and Wang will meet on Monday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, after last meeting in Laos in July, the same sources said.

Kamikawa is likely to urge China to take measures to prevent a similar incident in the future and to make further efforts to ensure the safety of Japanese citizens living in the country.

Meanwhile, a Japanese deputy foreign minister traveled to Beijing on Sunday, also to speak about the stabbing that occurred on Wednesday near a Japanese school in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.

During his three-day trip, Yoshifumi Tsuge will meet with Chinese government officials about the incident, the Foreign Ministry said.

The 10-year-old boy, whose father is Japanese and whose mother is Chinese, died early Thursday morning after being stabbed in the stomach on his way to school. The male suspect was arrested by police near the educational institution.

According to local media reports, police described the knife attack as an isolated incident and said the perpetrator acted alone.

Regarding China's seafood import ban, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Friday that Beijing had agreed to reinstate the import ban on the condition that third countries – including Japan – participate in monitoring the discharge of treated radioactive water from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea.