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just a few days later China issued advisory against traveling to JapanThe cancellations began.
About 3,000 Chinese come to Rie Takeda’s tea room in an alley tokyoHistoric Asakusa District every year. Nearly 200 people have already canceled bookings for her tea ceremony class in advance of January.
“I hope Chinese tourists will return by Chinese New Year,” he said, referring to the major holiday period in February. Past experience suggests that it may take longer than this.
China’s government is turning to a well-used playbook to express its displeasure with Japan for refusing to retract a statement by its new prime minister on the hot-button issue. taiwan,
With tariffs on Australian wines in 2020 and a ban on Philippine banana imports in 2012, Beijing It is using its economic power to put pressure on Tokyo and is also showering abuses on its government. The only question is how far China will go and how long the measures will last.
“All of China’s countermeasures have been kept secret and will be implemented one by one,” said Liu Xiangyong, an international relations professor at Beijing’s Tsinghua University. “Everything is possible, because it involves the core interests of the country.”
The dispute may last for more than a year
China was angered by a statement earlier this month by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi that its military could get involved if China took action against Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing says should come under its rule.
Japan is trying to prevent the dispute from escalating but has shown no signs of backing down. This matches how some other governments have reacted to pressure from China: hold their positions and endure the pain, allowing disputes to drag on for a year or more.
“The diplomatic challenge for both sides is that they have their own domestic audiences and so they don’t want to be perceived as backing down,” said Sheila A., a senior member of the Council on Foreign Relations and author of “Intimate Rivals,” a book on Japan-China relations. Smith said.
As with many countries, disputes continued until political change led to a new leader free from the burden of old statements.
Australia’s trade with China has gradually returned to normal since the election of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in 2022 – the final step was the reopening of the lobster market. Canada is the latest country to begin repairing relations under new Prime Minister Mark Carney.
travel advice starts to wane
This is not the first time that Japan has faced China’s economic wrath. In 2012, protesters attacked Japanese businesses in China and boycotted their goods after a dispute arose over a group of uninhabited islands that both countries claim. Group tours of Japan were cancelled.
Based on what happened then, when Chinese visitors dropped by one-quarter, Nomura Research Institute economist Takahide Kiuchi has estimated that the current travel advisories could cost Japan 1.8 trillion yen ($11.5 billion), off 0.3 percentage points from already low annual economic growth.
Many group tours have been canceled again, impacting the businesses that depend on them. The Gamagori Hotel in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, said it had lost more than 2,000 guests. Nichu Seyomu, a Japan-based tour company that focuses on Chinese tourists, put the losses on par with 2012, saying 300 bookings had been cancelled.
China was on track to displace South Korea this year and return to its pre-pandemic position as the top source of tourists to Japan. More than 8 million Chinese people visited in the first 10 months of this year, or 23% of the total, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.
“It’s a shame,” said Nana Enomoto, a Nichu Seyomu tour operator, adding that Chinese tourism is just recovering.
Some Chinese tourists cancel. others don’t
Kiran Zhu, who had never been to Japan, was distressed by the decision. His parents warned him against going. Finally, the accountant canceled his trip with a friend to see autumn leaves. Her friend came forward and told her that nothing unusual had happened.
“If I had known, I probably would have just left,” she said. “But it’s hard to say. The situation is really out of our control.”
Beijing resident Livia Du, who opened a ski lodge in northern Japan last year, received two cancellations — but they were quickly filled by other Chinese.
One customer told him that since China had taken a clear stand, he would have to engage with it. Another works at a government-owned company and said employees have been instructed not to visit Japan in the near future.
It seems guests are in a wait-and-see situation, said Du, who quit her job and invested more than 2 million yuan ($280,000) with her husband to build a lodge in Hokkaido. She was worried that the situation might get worse.
China has warned that it may take further steps
Last week the pressure appeared to be spreading to other areas. The Chinese releases of two Japanese films were suddenly postponed – the comedy “Sales at Work!” and the animated feature “Crayon Shin-chan the Movie: Super Hot! The Spicy Kasukabe Dancers.”
A Japanese entertainment company had shows canceled at a comedy festival in Shanghai, while a book publishing editor said his boss had asked him to suspend a project to import a Japanese comic book.
The prospects for seafood exports to China remained unclear, even as Tokyo denied news reports that Beijing said it was reversing its decision to end a 2-year-old ban on Japanese seafood.
Asked about the reports, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said Japan had failed to provide the necessary technical documentation to resume exports.
China could also target exports of rare earths, which are important for car production and other industries. Beijing found the minerals were a US weak point when it restricted their exports earlier this year.
“Japan should first withdraw its wrong comments and take concrete actions to maintain the political foundation of China-Japan relations,” Mao said last week. “Otherwise, China will have to take further steps.”
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McGill reported from Tokyo. Associated Press writer Fu Ting in Washington contributed to this report.