2 Japanese men murdered in north-east China over business dispute
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TOKYO - Two Japanese men were murdered in Dalian, in north-eastern China, in late May, with a Chinese man they did business with detained as a suspect, the Chinese authorities and the Japanese embassy in Beijing said on June 3.
The two victims, who were visiting China, were killed on May 23 by the suspect, a long-term resident of Japan, over a business dispute, the Dalian security authorities said.
The case is “currently under further investigation, and the relevant Chinese authorities will handle it in accordance with the law”, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a news conference.
The Japanese Consulate General in Shenyang was informed of the killings on May 25.
A Japanese government source said the incident was caused by “a grudge over business” and was “not politically motivated or triggered by anti-Japan sentiment”.
Dalian, which has strong historical and economic ties with Japan, hosts some 1,700 Japanese businesses and around 3,000 residents from the neighbouring country.
A Japanese man residing there said: “Business disputes may be on the rise amid an economic slump in China. I’m perplexed as no details are disclosed about the case.”
The Japanese embassy in Beijing said it has offered necessary support to the victims’ families.
The Dalian authorities confirmed that the bodies were cremated, and family members returned to Japan on June 1.
The incident follows a fatal stabbing of a 10-year-old Japanese schoolboy in Shenzhen, southern China, in September, and a knife attack in June 2024 at the bus stop of a Japanese school in Suzhou, near Shanghai, in which a Chinese woman was killed and a Japanese mother and child were injured.
Two Chinese men convicted of the fatal stabbings in Shenzhen and Suzhou were separately executed earlier in 2025. REUTERS, KYODO NEWS
