Photo/Illutration Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroshi Moriya speaks to reporters on Sept. 18. (Takeshi Iwashita)

SHENZHEN, China--A Japanese boy on his way to school in this southern Chinese city was attacked and injured on the morning of Sept. 18, according to Japanese government officials.

The boy was being treated at a hospital, but his condition was not immediately known.

Chinese authorities have arrested a male suspect and are currently questioning him.

“We have requested local authorities to work to prevent a recurrence and to share detailed information, given the viewpoint of protecting Japanese nationals,” Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroshi Moriya said at a news conference in Tokyo.

“We are providing necessary support, such as confirmation of what actually happened and ensuring communication with the relevant parties,” he said.

According to the Japanese Embassy in China, officials from the Japanese Consulate-General in Guangzhou have been dispatched to the site to assist the victim, who attends a local Japanese school, and assess the situation.

In June, a knife-wielding man attacked a Japanese school bus in Suzhou, a city in China’s eastern Jiangsu province. A Chinese guide on the bus was killed while protecting a Japanese mother and her child.

A Chinese man was arrested after the attack.

Since then, Japanese schools in China had heightened security measures.

Sept. 18 marks the anniversary of the 1931 Liutiaohu Incident, which led to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in northeastern China.

This date is known as the “day of national humiliation” in China.

Every year, a memorial ceremony is held in Shenyang. Anti-Japanese sentiment is said to often intensify during this time.

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