China warns citizens against Japan travel for Lunar New Year
China has urged its citizens to avoid travelling to Japan during next month’s Lunar New Year holiday, citing what it calls deteriorating public security and rising threats to Chinese nationals. The advisory comes amid a diplomatic spat after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested in November that Tokyo could intervene militarily if China attacked Taiwan. Beijing had already called on Chinese tourists to stay away from Japan following Takaichi’s comments, a move that contributed to a 45 percent year‑on‑year drop in Chinese visitors in December to around 330,000. Chinese tourists previously made up about a quarter of all foreign visitors, with nearly 7.5 million arrivals in the first nine months of 2025 and spending an estimated 3.7 billion dollars in the third quarter alone, helped by a weak yen. In a fresh statement on Monday, the foreign ministry’s Department of […]