An entrance to the Chinese embassy is seen in Tokyo on March 25, 2026. A man was apprehended in Tokyo March 24 after he trespassed onto the grounds of the Chinese embassy in Tokyo. Photo: VCG

　　It has been several days since Japanese Self-Defense Force (SDF) officer Kodai Murata broke into the Chinese Embassy in Japan with a knife on March 24, but Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi remains silent. Furthermore, while the Japanese Ministry of Defense bears direct responsibility for the incident, Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi only issued a perfunctory statement on March 27, saying the incident is "deeply regrettable." It seems that Japan, from the prime minister to high-ranking officials, intends to use evasive crisis management to "drag" the matter out. This callous attitude of shirking responsibility and lacking reflection is causing further damage to China-Japan relations.

　　Japan is not without historical experience in handling security breaches against foreign diplomats. On March 24, 1964, then US ambassador to Japan Edwin Reischauer was stabbed in front of the US Embassy in Tokyo. The Japanese government at the time displayed an "extraordinarily" swift response: then prime minister Hayato Ikeda personally called the US president and apologized to the American people on behalf of the Japanese people via satellite broadcast; the following day, then chairperson of the National Public Safety Commission, Takashi Hayakawa, resigned. This incident directly led to the establishment of the Protection Section of Japan"s Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.