Beijing’s Long Record of Economic Coercion against Japan Raises Fresh Concerns over Rare Earths, Visa Waiver

By Ryosuke Terunuma / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

7:00 JST, November 22, 2025

BEIJING — The Chinese government has repeatedly used trade restrictions and other forms of economic coercion against countries it is at odds with. Beijing, in its latest response to tensions, has urged Chinese citizens to refrain from traveling to Japan.

There are growing concerns that China could go further by imposing new export controls on rare earths bound for Japan or by ending the short-term visa waiver for Japanese visitors when it expires on Dec. 31.

After the September 2010 collision between a Chinese fishing boat and a Japan Coast Guard patrol vessel near the Senkaku Islands, China moved to restrict exports of rare earths to Japan. In the wake of the Japanese government’s decision in September 2012 to nationalize the Senkaku Islands, Beijing also imposed measures such as tougher customs inspections on Japanese products.

When the South Korean government and U.S. Forces in Korea decided in July 2016 to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system, China restricted the inflow of South Korean films and other cultural content, a measure that remains in place today.

At a press conference on Tuesday, economic security minister Kimi Onoda, asked about the impact of Beijing’s call for Chinese citizens to avoid travel to Japan, warned that “it is risky to depend too heavily on a country that immediately resorts to economic coercion whenever it encounters something it dislikes.”

She added, “Ideally, we should always be thinking about how to keep the economy running in ways that reduce such risks.”