Throwing stones and bricks or malicious calls, Japan condemns anti-Japanese acts on Tuesday. Tokyo attributes these incidents to China, which has hardened its tone since the beginning of the discharge into the sea of water from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant. These facts, including a wave of telephone harassment targeting Japanese companies and stone throwing at Japanese schools in China, are “extremely regrettable and worrying”, said Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi.
He also confirmed that a brick was thrown at the Japanese Embassy in China. The latter, questioned on Tuesday about this information, confirmed that it was “generally accurate”. “So far, there have been no demonstrations or violence (…) But there are a few people, alone, who have, in front of our door (…) done what you have just mentioned”, said an embassy spokesman said.
“Ensuring the safety of Japanese nationals”
These individuals were “arrested” by the Chinese security forces posted in front of the embassy, said the spokesperson. Asked about this, a spokesman for Chinese diplomacy, Wang Wenbin, repeated on Tuesday that China “always protects the security and the legitimate rights and interests of foreigners in the country, in accordance with the law”.
China has formally complained about the supposed “harassment” against its diplomatic representations in Japan, he also added, after a comment to this effect from the Chinese ambassador. During a press conference, Yoshimasa Hayashi for his part urged the Chinese government on Tuesday “to immediately take appropriate measures, in particular by calling on its citizens to act calmly to prevent the situation from worsening, and to take all possible measures to ensure the safety of Japanese nationals” in China.
“Unnecessarily arousing public concern”
“I live in China and I’m worried because my children go to a Japanese school,” commented on X (ex-Twitter) Taro, a Japanese expat. Japan had already summoned the Chinese ambassador to Tokyo on Monday to protest against the wave of telephone harassment from China that Japanese companies apparently chosen at random have been suffering for the past few days.
On Sunday, the Japanese Foreign Ministry had called on its citizens in China to be “cautious in their speech and behavior. Do not speak Japanese unnecessarily or too loudly”. Yoshimasa Hayashi also called on Beijing to “provide accurate information on the treated water” from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant, whose discharge into the sea began last Thursday, “rather than causing unnecessary concern to the public by providing information devoid of any scientific basis”.