A Chinese district court is set to sentence a man next week over a knife attack in June last year, in which a Japanese woman and her child, and a Chinese woman were attacked, sources at Japan's Consulate-General in Shanghai said Saturday.
In the sentencing hearing, attention will likely be paid to how the court will mention the attacker's motive as well as the severity of the sentence.
In the June 24 attack, a Japanese woman and her child were injured by a man in his 50s with a knife while they were waiting for a Japanese school bus at a bus stop in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. The Chinese woman who was a guide on the bus was killed in the attack.
Chinese authorities indicted the suspect in November. The first hearing in the man's trial was held on Jan. 9, with Japanese Consul-General in Shanghai Masaru Okada and others allowed to attend it.
The Chinese side has said that the incident occurred accidentally, and has not mentioned the man's motive for or background on the attack, including whether he targeted the Japanese.
The Japanese side has stopped short of disclosing details of the first court hearing while planning to give an explanation after the sentence is issued.
In China, a Japanese boy on his way to school was stabbed to death by a man in Shenzhen in the southern province of Guangdong last September. The first court hearing in the case is scheduled for Friday.
China is apparently hoping to close these cases early as the country aims to improve its relations with Japan.
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