A young Chinese woman in her twenties went missing while swimming along the coast of the southern part of the Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan on Monday (July 8). After drifting in the sea for about 36 hours, she was rescued by a Japanese cargo ship. The incident sparked discussions among netizens when the woman’s call for help to the Chinese embassy in Japan ended with a disconnected number.
On the day of the incident, despite the beach not being open to the public, the woman and her friend were swimming at Shirahama Ohama Beach in Shimoda City. She went missing around 7:55 p.m. that evening. Upon receiving the report, patrol boats from the Japan Coast Guard searched the area but found no trace of her, and the search was called off the following evening.
On Wednesday morning, the woman was found and rescued approximately 80 kilometers from the beach. A passing crew member of a cargo ship noticed her floating on the sea with a swim ring attached to her. The woman showed signs of mild dehydration but was conscious and not in life-threatening condition.
The Japan Coast Guard believes that the strong ocean currents carried the woman from the coast out to sea. The high sea water temperature of 24°C at the time, along with several days of clear weather and calm seas, played a key role in her safe discovery.
After the woman went missing, her friend tried to seek help by calling the Chinese Embassy in Japan, only to find the displayed number was disconnected. Emails sent for assistance to the embassy also went unanswered. Frustrated, the friend turned to social media for help, sparking a heated discussion.
A post on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) with over 2,300 likes stated: “A Chinese person swept away by seawater in Japan, unable to reach the embassy’s phone, no response to emails… Hope you remember that it was the Japanese who saved you, not your powerful motherland.”
Comments below the post mentioned, “The embassy is just a stop for officials. If the situation is not big enough, don’t expect much. When Hu Yaobang passed away, his daughter phoned the embassy to ask for help buying a plane ticket back to China, but they didn’t respond until her identity was clarified.”
Another comment said, “It’s fortunate that the embassy number was disconnected. Answering a fraud group’s business line would have been dangerous. I admire those who claimed to have reached the embassy by phone.”
The difficulty in contacting Chinese embassies abroad also helps scammers misuse the official entities for fraudulent activities. According to U.S. government investigations, from December 2017 to February 2019, cases of telephone fraud imitating the Chinese Embassy or Consulate in the U.S. alone resulted in $40 million in losses within a year.
In September last year, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police issued a warning on their official website to Chinese residents in Japan, cautioning them about fraudulent phone calls claiming to be from the Chinese embassy or the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, and providing tips on avoiding falling victim to such scams. The warning highlighted the increasing number of these scam calls leading to substantial financial losses for the victims.