Japanese students fear for safety in China after stabbing

The killing of a schoolboy in China has heightened concerns about the safety of Japanese people in the country, which academics predict will hit student mobility. 

A Japanese child was fatally stabbed in Shenzhen earlier this month. While the motive for the attack was unclear, the stabbing took place near the 10-year-old’s Japanese school, stoking concerns about rising negativity towards foreigners in China. 

This was the second attack near a Japanese school in recent months and follows another high-profile incident involving a Japanese national in China: the detention of a businessman in Beijing last year on suspicion of espionage. 

“China’s economy continues to worsen, and people who are struggling to make ends meet and have a low level of education are easily influenced by the Chinese government’s propaganda against so-called hostile foreign forces and the fake information it incites on social media,” said Tomoko Ako, a China studies professor at the University of Tokyo. 

“Those who want to make a profit on social media are making fun of the problems of the Japanese people and the Japanese government, leading people to feel even more hatred towards Japan.”

In China, anti-Japanese sentiment dates back to the Sino-Japanese wars, beginning in the late 1800s and culminating in the Japanese invasion of China in 1937. The stabbing of the schoolboy on 18 September coincided with the anniversary of the invasion of Manchuria, now north-eastern China. 

Historically, academic mobility between the two countries has been relatively unbalanced, with Japan receiving significant numbers of Chinese students, but there have been signs of growing interest in China in recent years among Japanese students and academics. 

China is also keen to encourage more Japanese citizens to study in China, with the education ministers of both – and their counterpart in South Korea – agreeing in June to work together to boost educational exchanges between the three countries. 

In 2018, Japanese students made up the ninth largest international student cohort in China by nationality, with more than 14,000 in the country. In comparison, there were 50,000 South Koreans, according to Chinese government figures. 

However, Utpal Vyas, an associate professor at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, predicted this could be set to decline. “Japanese students…are becoming less keen on going abroad for economic reasons, and media coverage of those incidents in China makes it even less attractive as a destination to study or visit,” he said. 

Some US universities are also reviewing their positions on China exchanges in light of cooling relations with the superpower. Ivy League Dartmouth College announced that it had sent a cohort of students to study China in Beijing this summer for the first time since the pandemic. However, others, such as Duke University, have paused similar programmes. 

For Japanese academics, Dr Vyas said, the incidents are less likely to have an impact, as most are “well aware” of the risks of going to China following the years-long rocky relationship between the two countries. 

However, there is also unease in the academic community about the disappearance of Chinese academics working at Japanese universities, several of whom have gone missing on return visits to China. One professor, who was detained on a trip to China in 2019, was recently revealed to have been sentenced to six years in prison on espionage charges. 

helen.packer@timeshighereducation.com