Chinese arrivals to Japan fall about 45% in December amid Taiwan row

Chinese tourism to Japan fell sharply in December, dropping about 45% from a year earlier to roughly 330,000 visitors, Japan's transport ministry said, amid a diplomatic row between Beijing and Tokyo over the security of Taiwan. The decline began toward the end of last year after Japan's prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, suggested her country could become militarily involved if China attempted to invade Taiwan.

Takaichi said a crisis in the Taiwan Strait could trigger the deployment of Japan's self-defence forces if the conflict posed an 'existential threat' to Japan. Beijing responded by urging its citizens not to travel to Japan, citing safety concerns. It later advised young people not to study in Japan, cancelled cultural exchanges and postponed the Chinese release of Japanese films.

The remarks followed a meeting between Takaichi and Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the Apec summit, where they had vowed to build 'constructive and stable' relations. Despite the fall in Chinese visitors, Japan recorded a record 42.7 million foreign arrivals last year, comfortably surpassing the previous record of almost 37 million in 2024.

China has remained the biggest source of inbound tourism: almost 7.5 million Chinese arrived in the first nine months of 2025, accounting for about a quarter of all foreign visitors, and Chinese tourists spent $3.7bn in the third quarter of last year.

Key Topics

World, China, Japan, Sanae Takaichi, Taiwan, Xi Jinping