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Police say business dispute behind murder of Japanese men in China

Published: 03 Jun. 2025, 17:53

A Chinese security person stands guard outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing on Sept. 19, 2024. [AP/YONHAP]

Two Japanese men were killed last month in the Chinese port city of Dalian because of a dispute with a Chinese business partner, police said Tuesday.

The partner, a 42-year-old man surnamed Yuan, was arrested May 24, one day after the killings were reported to Dalian police.

Yuan is a long-time resident of Japan and did business with the victims in that country and the Japanese men were visiting China, a Chinese police statement said.

The police statement did not say what the dispute was about or how the victims were killed.

Two stabbing attacks on Japanese schoolchildren last year have raised concerns among Japanese people about traveling to and living in China. In one case, a 10-year-old boy died, and in the other, a Chinese attendant on a school bus was killed after she tried to prevent the assailant from getting on the bus.

Dalian, once known as Port Arthur to westerners, was a Russian naval base that was taken by Japan during the 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War.

AP