A 10-year-old student at a Japanese school in southern China has died one day after he was stabbed.

The boy, who was enrolled at the Shenzhen Japanese School, succumbed to his injuries early on Thursday, Japanese officials said.

His assailant, a 44-year-old man surnamed Zhong, was arrested on the spot, local police said.

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa called the attack “despicable” and said Tokyo had asked Beijing for an explanation “as soon as possible”.

While neither side has confirmed the victim’s nationality, the Shenzhen Japanese School’s website says it is for “Japanese children who have Japanese nationality.”

The motive for the attack was not immediately known.

It happened on the anniversary of the notorious Mukden Incident, in which Japan faked an explosion to justify its invasion of Manchuria in 1931, triggering a 14-year war with China.

“This should never happen in any country,” Kimikawa said.

The stabbing in Shenzhen follows a similar knife attack in June, when a man targeted a Japanese mother and her child in the eastern city of Suzhou.

The Japanese embassy in Beijing issued a statement on Thursday calling on the Chinese government to “prevent such incidents from happening again”.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said the case was being investigated.

“China will continue to take effective measures to protect the safety of all foreigners in the country,” he added.

Ties between Japan and China have long been acrimonious – for decades the two sides have clashed on a number of issues, ranging from historical grievances to territorial disputes.

Some observers have expressed concern that nationalist sentiments in China might be spilling into increasing violence against foreigners.

The knife attack in Suzhou in June was also near a Japanese school and led to the death of a Chinese national who had tried to protect a Japanese mother and her child. Earlier that month, four American teachers were stabbed in the northern city of Jilin.

China described both as “isolated incidents”.

A former Japanese diplomat said Wednesday’s attack in Shenzhen was the “result of long years of anti-Japan education” in Chinese schools.

“This has cost the precious life of a Japanese child,” Shingo Yamagami, Japan’s former ambassador to Australia, wrote on X.

Some Japanese schools in China have contacted parents, putting them on high alert in the wake of the stabbing in Shenzhen.

The Guangzhou Japanese School cancelled some activities and warned against speaking Japanese loudly in public.

Earlier this year, the Japanese government this year requested about $2.5 million to hire security guards for school buses in China.

On Chinese social media, there was some condemnation of the incident with one user commenting “violence is not patriotism.”