Japan's Prime Minister expressed his concern about incidents involving the throwing of stones at diplomatic missions and schools in China on Monday. These incidents followed the discharge of wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plant.
Last week, China imposed a ban on all seafood imports from Japan in response to the release of cooling water from the Fukushima plant. Both Tokyo and the UN's nuclear watchdog assert that the operation is safe.
Subsequently, Japanese businesses, ranging from bakeries to aquariums, reportedly received thousands of crank calls from Chinese numbers, some of which were abusive in nature.
Addressing reporters, Fumio Kishida stated, "We've seen numerous harassing calls that seem to originate from China, along with instances of stones being thrown at the Japanese embassy and Japanese schools. These incidents are unfortunate."
Kishida continued, "We summoned the Chinese ambassador to Japan today and strongly urged him to call upon Chinese citizens to act calmly and responsibly."
Japan's comments came after it declared an escalation of security measures at its diplomatic missions and schools in China.
Over the weekend, Tokyo advised its tens of thousands of nationals living in China to maintain a low profile and avoid speaking Japanese loudly in public.
In a statement, the foreign ministry noted that Deputy Foreign Minister Masataka Okano informed Ambassador Wu Jianghao that China should provide accurate information to the public, rather than causing undue concerns with information lacking scientific evidence.
Videos and recordings of these nuisance calls have been shared by social media users in China, garnering tens of thousands of likes and numerous comments.
Okano told Wu, "Since the start of the discharge... there have been numerous phone calls and other forms of harassment regarding the discharge that are suspected to originate from China. Unfortunately, the situation has not improved since then."
He added, "Similar incidents are also occurring in China against Japan-related facilities. This is deeply regrettable and a cause for substantial concern," as per the release.
Japan has commenced releasing the equivalent of over 500 Olympic swimming pools' worth of wastewater from Fukushima into the Pacific. This comes twelve years after a tsunami disabled three reactors in one of the world's most catastrophic nuclear accidents.
The plant's operator, TEPCO, assures that all radioactive elements have been filtered out, except for tritium, which remains within safe limits.
According to Japanese authorities, test results since the onset of the discharge have substantiated this claim.
