Photo/Illutration Many police officers patrol Victoria Park in Hong Kong on the evening of June 4, the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing. (Sotaro Hata)

HONG KONG—On the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, a Japanese man was removed by local police from Victoria Park here while chanting a Buddhist sutra.

The police took the man away from the site and released him later on June 4, a police officer said. 

According to video footage, which Hong Kong media showed on a broadcast, and other sources, the Japanese man, who is apparently Yukio Iimura, chanted a Buddhist sutra while beating a fan-shaped flat drum.

Police said that they removed the Japanese man on “suspicion of disturbing the social calm.”

In Victoria Park, large June 4 candlelight vigils were held annually until 2019. For this year's anniversary date, Hong Kong police put heavy security arrangements in place.

The police possibly took the Japanese man’s act as a commemoration of the Tiananmen Square anniversary.

An official of the Japanese Consulate-General in Hong Kong said after ensuring that the man was only briefly detained and questioned by police, “We will continue to investigate the incident."

Looking ahead to possible unrest around the June 4 anniversary, the consulate general called on Japanese in Hong Kong to stay vigilant of danger when going out, saying that, “The possibility that unpredictable incidents will occur cannot be ignored.”

In Hong Kong, the national security law was enacted in 2020 and a new national security law took effect to complement the old one in March 2024.

Those laws severely crack down on critical speeches against the Chinese and Hong Kong governments.

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