Two Japanese individuals were reported murdered in Dalian city, with local authorities detaining a Chinese suspect, according to a news report by Japan’s Kyodo News Agency on Tuesday. A source familiar with Sino-Japanese relations revealed that on May 25th, the Japanese Consulate General in Shenyang received notification from the Liaoning provincial public security bureau stating “two Japanese individuals were murdered in Dalian.”
The ages and other details of the victims have not been disclosed. The deceased are reported to be two men, with officials from the Japanese consulate confirming their deaths and notifying their families.
The suspect is a Chinese citizen who has been detained on suspicion of murder and is currently under investigation. A source knowledgeable about Sino-Japanese relations commented, “This is likely a personal dispute.”
A Japanese official stated that the motive appears to be commercial in nature, rather than politically motivated or stemming from anti-Japanese sentiment.
In 2024, three incidents of Japanese individuals being attacked in China drew international attention. On September 18, a 10-year-old Japanese boy attending a Japanese school in Shenzhen was stabbed to death by a Chinese man, shocking the Japanese community in China and Japan at large. On June 24, a Japanese mother and her child in Suzhou were attacked by a Chinese man wielding a knife while waiting for a train at a station. While both survived without life-threatening injuries, a Chinese female bus attendant named Hu Youping, who tried to stop the attacker, tragically lost her life. On April 3, a Japanese employee in Suzhou was injured in the neck in an attack by a Chinese man wielding a knife.