Overview
- Kodai Murata, 23, a Ground Self-Defense Force second lieutenant, was sent to prosecutors Thursday after police arrested him on suspicion of unlawfully entering China’s embassy in Tokyo on Tuesday.
- Investigators say he climbed a wall into the compound, a knife about 18 centimeters long was recovered from the shrubs, and no one was injured.
- Police quoted Murata as saying he wanted to press the ambassador to soften rhetoric toward Japan and that he planned to kill himself if rebuffed.
- China lodged formal protests and demanded severe punishment, arguing Japan failed its duty under the Vienna Convention to protect diplomatic staff and premises.
- Japan called the case regrettable, increased police at the mission, and ordered tighter security at foreign facilities nationwide as relations have frayed since Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Taiwan comments in November.