Relations between Tokyo and Beijing have plummeted over the Japanese leader’s recent comments on Taiwan.
Posted on November 17, 2025
Japanese stocks linked to the tourism industry have plummeted following China’s warning to its citizens against travel to Japan.
Relations between Tokyo and Beijing have plummeted since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested earlier this month that the Japanese military could intervene to prevent China from taking control of Taiwan.
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In a sharp escalation of the dispute on Friday, China’s Foreign Ministry advised citizens to avoid traveling to the East Asian country, claiming Takaichi’s comments had increased risks to their “personal safety and lives.”
The problem continued to reverberate as Japan’s stock market reopened on Monday after the weekend break, with airline and retail stocks suffering sharp declines.
Department store group Isetan Mitsukoshi fell more than 11 percent in afternoon trading, while rival Takashimaya fell about 5 percent.
Japan Airlines fell about 4 percent, while Fast Retailing, which owns Uniqlo, fell about 5 percent. Cosmetics company Shiseido plummeted around 9.5 percent.
China is Japan’s largest source of foreign tourists, accounting for nearly a quarter of the 31.65 million arrivals in the first nine months of this year, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.
Ryota Abe, an economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, said Japan’s gross domestic product (GDP) could contract by about 0.5 percent in the event of a complete collapse in Chinese arrivals and by 0.1 to 0.2 percent if arrivals fell by about a third.
“Even if the number of visitors decreases by 30 percent due to team tensions, the negative impact will be between 0.1 and 0.2 percent,” Abe told Al Jazeera.
Japan’s economy shrank 0.4 percent in the three months to September, official data released on Monday showed, the first contraction in six quarters.
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a regular news conference on Monday that Beijing’s travel warning was inconsistent with mutually beneficial ties and that Tokyo had requested “appropriate measures” from the Chinese side.
Japan’s top official for Asia Pacific affairs, Masaaki Kanai, left for China on Monday for talks aimed at reducing tensions between the sides, Japanese media reported.
Masaaki Kanai will meet his Chinese counterpart Liu Jinsong in Beijing, where he is expected to clarify that Tokyo has not made any changes to its security policy despite Takaichi’s comments on Taiwan, according to reports.
Japan has long viewed with concern China’s threats to seize control of Taiwan due to the self-ruled island’s proximity to Japanese territory and its location in waters that carry large volumes of trade.
China considers Taiwan part of its territory and has pledged to “reunify” the island with mainland China, by force if necessary.
Taiwan is not officially recognized by most countries, but has many features of a de facto independent state, including its own military and passport, and a democratically elected president and legislature.
