Japan's ambassador to Beijing has asked for more security for Japanese nationals in China after a 10-year-old Japanese boy was killed this week in a knife attack that was the second to target school students.

A 10-year-old boy attending a Japanese school in southern China has died after being stabbed on his way to class on Wednesday, according to Tokyo’s foreign minister, in the second knife attack near a Japanese school in the country in recent months.

Some of Japan’s biggest companies urged the protection of employees in China, following the fatal stabbing in the mainland of a young Japanese boy.