China Urges Citizens Not to Visit Japan

Beijing, Nov. 15 (Jiji Press)–China has urged its citizens not to visit Japan in an apparent retaliatory step against Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent remark about a potential Taiwan contingency. The Foreign Ministry on Friday issued a notice claiming that Takaichi made an outrageous statement about Taiwan, posing a grave risk to the safety of the Chinese people’s lives. The notice also called for Chinese nationals in Japan to be careful about their safety. President Xi Jinping’s administration strongly opposes Takaichi’s remark at a recent parliamentary meeting that a contingency over Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation,” allowing Japan to exercise its right to collective self-defense. On Thursday, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong summoned Japanese Ambassador to China Kenji Kanasugi and lodged a strong protest over Takaichi’s remark and called for its retraction. Japan must take full responsibility if it does not retract the remark, Sun said. Meanwhile, Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Takehiro Funakoshi on Friday summoned Chinese Ambassador to Japan Wu Jianghao to make a strong protest over an online comment by China’s consul-general in Osaka about Takaichi’s remark and urged China to respond appropriately. Regarding Takaichi’s remark, the consul-general, Xue Jian, made a post on X that can be taken to mean that Takaichi must be beheaded. According to Japan National Tourism Organization data, 7.49 million people from China visited Japan from January to September this year, the largest number of visitors by country or region. The notice may impact the number of Chinese visitors to Japan and exchange projects between the two countries. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]