Chinese travellers are estimated to have cancelled hundreds of thousands of flights to Japan amid reports of suspended visa processing and cultural exchanges as a diplomatic dispute over Japan’s stance on Taiwan continues.
Under pressure from business groups, Japan has sent a senior diplomat to Beijing in an attempt to calm tensions after Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, said her country could get militarily involved if China attempted to invade Taiwan. Her comments prompted fury from China’s government, which issued warnings against Chinese travellers and students going to Japan.
At least seven Chinese airlines, including the three state carriers, said they would offer free cancellations to travellers with flights booked to the country.
One air travel analyst, Hanming Li, said departure data suggested about 500,000 flights to Japan had been cancelled between 15 and 17 November.
Chinese outlet Jimu news reported that Sichuan airlines had cancelled all flights between Chengdu and Sapporo from January until late March, and that budget carrier Spring airlines had cancelled “multiple” Japan flights. Both airlines cited “company planning reasons”.
China is the second-largest source of tourists to Japan, and its students – estimated last year to be about 120,000 – form the bulk of Japan’s international student cohort. Shares in Japanese retail and travel companies slumped on Monday in response to the measures.
Li told the Guardian it was the largest mass cancellation of flights he had seen since early in the Covid pandemic, but would probably have little impact on China’s domestic industry.
“It is not a huge loss for airlines because Sino-Japan market is small when comparing to the whole domestic and international market,” Li said.
The travel cancellations are among a growing list of economic countermeasures after what had until Sunday been mostly a rhetorical reaction.
An operator at one Chinese travel agency said it had stopped processing individual visa applications for Chinese people travelling to Japan, and other reports noted some local-level Japan-China cross-cultural events had been cancelled.
Film distributors have also indefinitely postponed the screening of at least two Japanese films in China, and state media has claimed that box office sales for an already released Japanese film, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, have slumped in recent days. The turn away from the initially popular animation was due to “strong dissatisfaction from Chinese audiences” with Takaichi, state broadcaster CCTV said.
The anger has rattled Japanese business groups, with industry leaders meeting Takaichi on Monday and urging her to calm the tensions. “Political stability is a prerequisite for economic exchange,” Yoshinobu Tsutsui, chair of Japan’s biggest business lobby, Keidanren, told reporters.
On Monday Tokyo dispatched a top foreign ministry official, Masaaki Kanai, to Beijing, where he was expected to meet with his Chinese counterpart, Liu Jinsong, Japanese reports said.
Takaichi, however, has refused to withdraw her remarks – the primary demand from Beijing – although the Japanese government said its policy on Taiwan was unchanged. She had said an attack on Taiwan could signify an existential threat to Japan, permitting it to exercise “self-defence”. Japan’s postwar constitution forbids it from using force as a means of settling international disputes.
The prospect of Japanese involvement in the event of an attack on Taiwan is alarming for Beijing. The US is Taiwan’s biggest backer in its resistance to China’s annexation plans but is not obliged to defend it, and as policy it refuses to confirm if it would. However, the US-Japan security treaty commits both countries to defend each other if one is attacked in Japanese territory, and so Japanese involvement in a Taiwan conflict would almost guarantee US involvement.
China’s state media has given the spat blanket coverage, including in its Japanese and English-language outlets and social media accounts, and the campaign has fuelled anger and nationalism online.
Japan has warned its citizens in China to take extra safety precautions, and reminded expats to respect local customs and exercise caution in their interactions with local people. Just over 100,000 Japanese were living in China in 2023, according to Japan’s foreign ministry.
Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Minoru Kihara, said Tuesday’s advice – which includes avoiding crowded places – was in response to a surge in anti-Japanese sentiment in the Chinese media.
“We have made judgments based on comprehensive consideration of the security situation in the country or region, as well as its political and social conditions,” Kihara said.
Japan’s embassy in Beijing also asked Japanese citizens to be aware of their surroundings, advising them to not travel alone and urging extra caution when travelling with children.
Additional reporting by Lillian Yang
