Japan - Japanese firms tell employees to stay home as Chinese protests continue

Many Japanese living in China stayed home Tuesday as anti-Japanese protests entered the eighth day since the Japanese government purchased some of the Senkaku Islands.

The day also fell on the 81st anniversary of the Liutiaohu Incident, which led to the Japanese setting up a puppet government in Manchuria.

Anti-Japanese demonstrations were held in front of the Japanese Embassy in Beijing and more than 100 other cities and regions across China.

"You should refrain from taking radical actions. Don't upset the public order," a public security officer said via a bullhorn as thousands of demonstrators gathered in front of the embassy.

At 9:18am, a ceremony to mark the 1931 incident started in Shenyang--the site of the incident is in the city's outskirts.

At about the same time, the demonstrators in front of the Japanese Embassy shouted, "Never forget the humiliation this nation suffered."

Riot police five lines deep confronted the excited crowd.

Demonstrators generally followed instructions from police officers to continue marching rather than remain in front of the embassy. Some, however, threw plastic bottles and eggs at the embassy, while others chanted such phrases as "Declare war on Japan!" and "Drown Tokyo in blood!"

Meanwhile, Japanese residents in China kept a low profile Tuesday and some Japanese businesses told their employees to stay home.

In Beijing, many Japanese companies and restaurants covered their names with Chinese flags in the hope they would not be targeted by anti-Japanese demonstrators.

Some Japanese restaurants even posted signs stating, "Diaoyu are part of China's territory." Diaoyu is the name China gives to the Senkaku Islands.

A 43-year-old Japanese woman, who has worked at a Japanese-affiliated company in China for years, said she had a terrifying encounter with demonstrators.

"When I was passing protesters, they asked me where I came from. I instantly replied I was South Korean," she said. "I won't take a taxi as I fear the driver would find out I'm Japanese. I don't utter a word aboard buses."

In Shanghai, home to the largest Japanese community in China with about 56,000 long-term residents, Japanese schools were closed Tuesday and will remain shut Wednesday. Many kindergartens have also closed.

"I'm concerned anti-Japanese sentiments will escalate rapidly," said a Japanese employee of a Japanese manufacturer, who stayed home Tuesday with his wife and child. "We are very worried about the situation."

A Japanese employee of another Japanese manufacturer, whose head office has ordered its workers in China to stay home, said he had stocked up on food at a supermarket dealing with Japanese products.

"We can stay at home for at least one week," he said. "We're preparing for an emergency because nobody knows what will happen in China."

In Guangzhou, where anti-Japanese protesters turned violent Sunday, the local Japanese school closed Tuesday, while some Japanese companies ordered their Japanese employees to stay home.

A 37-year-old employee of a Japanese manufacturer, who has a wife and an 11-year-old son, said they would not leave their condominium Tuesday.

"Although I've been living here for five years, I've never felt such strong hostility toward us in China before," he said. "If the demonstration continues, I may think of sending my family back home as I'm concerned [about their safety]."

Yasushi Kouchi, Yasuharu Seki and Kenichi Yoshida
The Yomiuri Shimbun

Kouchi is a correspondent in Beijing, Seki is in Shanghai, and Yoshida is in Guangzhou.

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