On the 25th, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said the suspect who entered the Chinese Embassy grounds in Minato Ward and was arrested on a charge of trespassing around 9 a.m. the previous day has been identified as Kodai Murata, 23. Murata is assigned to the Ground Self-Defense Force’s Ebino garrison in Miyazaki Prefecture and holds the rank of 3rd-class yu-i, a junior officer rank roughly equivalent to a second lieutenant.
According to police, Murata climbed over the embassy wall armed with a knife and forced his way into the compound. Embassy staff restrained him and turned him over to Tokyo police. China said a person who identified himself as a member of the Self-Defense Forces scaled the wall and forced entry, and that it filed a formal protest with Japanese authorities.
During questioning, Murata told investigators he intended to meet the Chinese ambassador to urge the ambassador to refrain from making harsh remarks about Japan. He said that if his appeal was ignored, he planned to kill himself to attract attention.
Murata told police he bought the blade recovered from a flowerbed on the embassy grounds; the knife measured about 18 cm (approximately 7.1 in.).
Tokyo police say they believe the suspect acted alone.
At a news conference, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara, the government’s top spokesman, said: “We deeply regret that a member of the Self-Defense Forces, who must observe the law, was arrested on a charge of trespassing.” He added that the government is boosting security at the Chinese Embassy in Japan and considering further measures, and that authorities will pursue steps to prevent a recurrence based on findings from the ongoing investigation.
After formally raising the issue through its embassy the previous day, the Chinese government escalated its criticism of Japanese institutions through state media.
The Global Times, a Chinese state-run English-language paper, editorialized that “this incident is not an isolated case of personal extremism but a mirror reflecting the grim reality of pervasive far-right ideology and the revival of militarism in Japan.” The paper said the episode represents an extreme expression of steadily worsening public sentiment toward China in Japan and claimed crimes targeting Chinese people have become more frequent recently.
