Beijing: Japan’s Foreign Ministry has called on Japanese people traveling to or staying in China to take precautions, citing “many” protests and cases of harassment occurring in China after Japan started to release treated water from a nuclear power plant.

Stones and eggs were thrown at some Japanese schools in China, likely in response to Japan starting to release into the sea tritium-containing treated water from the meltdown-hit Fukushima No. 1 plant in northeastern Japan on Thursday.

The Japanese Embassy in Beijing on Saturday said that a number of individuals and groups in Japan have received harassing phone calls from those in China.

In light of such a situation, the ministry on Sunday urged Japanese people in China not to speak more loudly than necessary in Japanese while out and about, and remain vigilant when visiting the embassy or Japanese schools.

The ministry also called on people not to approach protesters, as well as to refrain from taking videos of such activities on their smartphones.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has criticized Japan’s treated water release, with anti-Japan sentiment rising in China once again.

In 2012, anti-Japan protests were held throughout China in response to the Japanese government’s nationalization of the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. The islands are also claimed by the Chinese side. At the time, stones and plastic bottles were thrown at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, and Japanese schools were forced to temporarily close.

JIJI Press