Amid rapidly escalating bilateral friction between Beijing and Tokyo, the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo issued a formal statement Thursday accusing Japanese law enforcement authorities of failing to take adequate, effective action to counter a string of violent threats targeting Chinese diplomatic facilities and Chinese nationals based in Japan.
Shi Yong, China’s acting ambassador to Japan, detailed the sequence of alarming incidents in his remarks. The first major threat arrived on March 5, in the form of a letter sent to the embassy from an anonymous group claiming to consist of former Japanese police and military personnel. The message contained overtly hostile threats: the group pledged to carry out violent attacks against Chinese diplomatic missions across Japan and threatened to “wipe out all Chinese” residing in the country.
Immediately after receiving the threatening correspondence, embassy officials filed a formal report with Japanese police, according to an official post the mission made on the social media platform X. The embassy criticized Japanese law enforcement for failing to treat the threat seriously, declining to implement tangible protective measures, and falling short of launching a full, thorough investigation to clarify the facts of the case.
The string of threats continued after a high-profile trespassing incident in late March, when an officer from the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force was arrested for illegally entering the Chinese Embassy compound in Tokyo while armed with a knife. Following a formal diplomatic protest from Beijing over the incursion, Japanese police increased visible security deployments around the embassy’s premises.
Just one week after the trespassing incident, the embassy received a separate bomb threat via social media. This threat was issued by another individual claiming to be a member of the Japan Self-Defense Force reserve, prompting local authorities to launch a two-hour bomb sweep across the embassy compound. Shi did not confirm whether any explosive devices were located during the search.
While the acting ambassador acknowledged that Japanese police have boosted external security around the diplomatic mission, he emphasized that the embassy and its personnel remain in an unsafe position, still “exposed to threats” that have not been fully resolved.
Tensions between China and Japan have steepened since November last year, when Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made controversial remarks stating that any Chinese military operation targeting the self-governed island of Taiwan could qualify as a national security emergency justifying a Japanese military response. In response to the comments, China implemented a series of diplomatic and economic countermeasures against Japan.
As of Thursday, Japan’s Foreign Ministry has not issued any response to the Chinese Embassy’s new accusations, and declined to comment on the record when approached for statement.