Japan, China Go from Shaking Hands to Trading Blows after Takaichi Comments

By Keiichiro Azuma and Takuma Okamoto / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers

2:00 JST, November 17, 2025

BEJING/TOKYO — Japan and China continue to trade punches in their spat over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s statements about a Taiwan contingency and a “survival threating” situation for Japan. Neither side seems to be ready to back down, and the relationship between the two, which had been stabilizing, is now in danger of a rapid cooling down.

“I had no idea. I think Japan is a nice place,” a 61-year-old Chinese tourist said in surprise on Saturday in Tokyo’s Ginza district, after learning that China has advised its citizens not to visit the country.

Another Chinese man in his 60s said, “I came to Japan just a few days ago, so I don’t know about it. I just want to enjoy my shopping.”

From January to September this year, 7,487,200 Chinese tourists visited Japan, accounting for the largest share of foreigner visitors, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.

But on Friday, China’s Foreign Ministry posted a message on social media advising the county’s citizens to “avoid traveling to Japan.” While China has previously issued such advice due to terrorism or natural disasters, it is unusual for it to urge people to refrain from traveling to a foreign country due to a diplomatic issue. In 2019, China called for caution when travelling to Canada after a senior executive of Chinese telecoms device giant Huawei was detained in Canada.

Amid the U.S.-China standoff, Beijing has shown interest in more stable relations with Japan. On Oct. 31, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Takaichi in Gyeongju, South Korea, and expressed his willingness to develop Japan-China relations.

After the meeting, there were some positive moves, including China’s resumption of imports of Japanese marine products and its decision to allow Japanese people to travel visa free to the country until the end of 2026. However, Xi might have felt that he lost face when Takaichi, with whom he had just shaken hands, made statements that went deep into the Taiwan issue.

On Thursday, Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong summoned the Japanese ambassador to China, Kenji Kanasugi, and lodged a protest, according to an announcement by the Chinese Foreign Ministry. The summons was made under the “instructions” of the supreme leadership of the Communist Party, according to sources close to the Chinese government. Afterward, the tone of criticism from China sharpened dramatically. Sun reportedly stressed to Kanasugi that the Taiwan question is at the core of China’s core interests and is a red line that must not be crossed.

Takaichi was perceived as suggesting that Japan would intervene militarily in a Taiwan contingency, and the backlash has been made worse by her timing. This year marks the 80th anniversary of “victory in the war of resistance against Japan” and of the end of Japanese rule over Taiwan.

In a commentary dated Friday, the People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, criticized Takaichi’s remarks as “the first time since Japan’s defeat in 1945 that … a Japanese leader has explicitly expressed ambitions for armed involvement in the Taiwan question, and the first time Japan has issued an overt military threat toward China on this matter.”

A spokesperson for China’s National Defense Ministry also warned that Japan will “pay a heavy price” against the “iron wall” of the People’s Liberation Army.

It is not clear what impact China’s travel advisory will have, but deteriorating relations between Japan and China have cast a shadow over tourism and the economy in the past. The situation could be volatile for some time to come.