Japan’s Chinese Tourist Boom Slows Amid Simmering Tensions

• Chinese visitor growth to Japan slowed in November to its weakest pace in nearly four years, as Beijing curbed travel amid rising tensions over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks on Taiwan. Arrivals from China rose just 3% from a year earlier to 562,600, the slowest increase since January 2022, according to a statement by the Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO). Overall, inbound traffic climbed 10% year-on-year, it said.
• The slowdown offers the clearest sign yet that geopolitical tensions are beginning to reshape Japan’s tourism outlook. Beijing’s advisory discouraging travel to Japan and its directive for airlines to cut flights through March 2026 raises the risk of a prolonged downturn.
• JNTO noted that demand from China typically eases during this month, but the latest slowdown was compounded by the Chinese government’s warning against travel
• Japan had otherwise been enjoying strong growth in Chinese tourism, with arrivals more than doubling last November compared with the year before. The increase in overall arrivals was driven by visitors also from South Korea, Taiwan and the U.S. South Korea remains Japan’s largest source of tourists, followed by China, Taiwan and the U.S., respectively.
• Still, China’s pullback carries outsized weight. Chinese travellers are Japan’s biggest spenders, accounting for a fifth of the nation’s ¥8.1Tn ($52.4Bn billion) in tourism revenue. Their retreat hits an economy where population decline leaves tourism as one of the few reliable growth engines.
• Japan could lose ¥1.2Tn ($7.7Bn) in tourism revenue next year if travel freezes persist, according to Hiromu Komiya, an economist at Japan Research Institute.

(Source: Jing Daily)