Passengers line up orderly at check-in counters at Nanjing Lukou International Airport in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu Province on October 1, 2025. Photo: VCG

As of 10 am on Monday, all flights on 12 routes from Chinese mainland cities to Japan planned for the coming week have been canceled, according to data from civil aviation industry information provider Flight Master.

Among them, all the seven flights from Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport in East China's Zhejiang Province to Japan's Chubu Centrair International Airport planned for the coming week have been canceled, so have all the seven flights from Nanjing Lukou International Airport in East China's Jiangsu Province to Japan's Fukuoka Airport, per the data posted on a WeChat account of Flight Master on Monday. 

Overall, among the top 20 routes by scheduled flight volume, the routes with the highest cancelation rates include Tianjin Binhai-Kansai International, Nanjing Lukou-Kansai International and Guangzhou Baiyun-Kansai International, according to the data.

Meanwhile, data from another civil aviation industry information provider Umetrip also showed that a growing number of flights between Chinese and Japanese cities have been canceled. 

As of Monday, the number of canceled flights from the Chinese mainland to Japan scheduled from November 24 to December 31 was up about 56 percent compared with the same period last month, according to data Umetrip sent to the Global Times on Monday.

Also, as of Monday, Chinese airlines (excluding 9 Air and Spring Airlines) had seen their flight bookings to Japan for the next 60 days fall by about 29 percent compared with the level on November 15, the Umetrip data showed.

The growing flight cancellations come after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's erroneous remarks regarding China's Taiwan have sparked strong indignation and opposition from China. 

Earlier this month, China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism advised Chinese citizens to avoid traveling to Japan, citing security concerns. In a statement published on its official website, the ministry cited the travel advisory issued by the Chinese foreign ministry, which referred to a deteriorating security environment for Chinese citizens in Japan as well as recent provocative remarks made by the Japanese leader regarding China's Taiwan, according to Xinhua.

Following Takaichi's erroneous remarks, Chinese tourists' enthusiasm for traveling to Japan is rapidly cooling. Several travel agencies told the Global Times earlier that they had received many cancelations for group tours to Japan. 

Major airlines such as Air China, China Eastern Airlines, and China Southern Airlines have announced special ticket-handling policies for flights involving Japan, allowing eligible passengers to change or refund their tickets free of charge.

Although the industry generally considers November and December to be the off-season for travel to Japan, independent analyst Li Hanming said that the significant decline in flight bookings was not solely due to seasonal factors.

"This is already what we call an abnormal cancelation rate," he told the Global Times on Monday, adding that the trend of cancellations is highly likely to persist through the Spring Festival travel period, as there are no signs of improvement.

A traveler surnamed Han told the Global Times on Monday that she has canceled her New Year's trip to Kansai. She originally planned to arrive in Kansai on December 28 and celebrate New Year's Eve there. "I was worried about not being able to get a return flight, so I canceled," she told the Global Times.

Recent data from Umetrip also showed that the ranking of popular outbound travel destinations has been reshuffled.

For November 24 to December 31, the top three outbound travel destinations are Bangkok, Seoul, and Singapore. During this period, flight bookings from the Chinese mainland to Bangkok increased by about 8 percent compared with the previous week. 

In contrast, flight bookings to Tokyo and Osaka decreased by about 22 percent and 37 percent, respectively, compared with the previous week, Umetrip said on Monday.