Mercedes-Benz and its Chinese joint venture with BAIC Motor will recall a total of 523,094 imported and domestically manufactured vehicles in China over potential safety hazards, China's market regulator said on Friday.

Mercedes-Benz Group AG cut its financial forecast due to a rapid deterioration of its business in China, marking the latest blow to Germany’s struggling industrial sector.

China is one of the largest markets for Japanese seafood exporters and the ban has been one of the main points of tension between the two countries.

China and Japan reached a consensus in August on the discharge of radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday, bringing to an end a diplomatic dispute that had rumbled on for over two years.

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.

In a call with China’s vice-foreign minister Sun Weidong on Thursday, Japan’s ambassador Kenji Kanasugi “strongly urged” Beijing to share detailed information about the incident, which was the second targeted attack on Japanese schoolchildren in China in recent months.