Pedestrians walk down a street in the amusement district of Shinjuku in Tokyo, on February 12, 2026. Photo: VCG

With the May Day holidays nearing, cancellations on China-Japan flights continue to rise, with some routes fully cancelled, according to Umetrip, China’s aviation data provider.

About 45 percent of scheduled flights from the Chinese mainland to Japan during the 2026 May Day holidays had been canceled as of April 20, with the cancellation rate up about 33 percent year on year, said Umetrip on Monday.

Five routes — Shenyang-Osaka, Tianjin-Osaka, Fuzhou-Nagoya, Ningbo-Osaka and Guangzhou-Nagoya — were completely scrapped, posting 100 percent cancellation rates. Meanwhile, Shanghai, Beijing, Dalian, Guangzhou, and Nanjing ranked as the top five cities by number of canceled flights.

Data from VariFlight, another industry data provider, showed that as of press time, 210 flights to Japan during the five-day May Day holidays had been canceled. Scheduled round-trip flights between China and South Korea ranked first, up 11.1 percent year on year.

These figures were released as Japan’s official data also pointed to a similarly negative trend.

According to data released by the Japan National Tourism Organization on April 15, the number of visitors from the Chinese mainland to Japan fell 55.9 percent year on year in March, marking the fourth consecutive month of decline on a yearly basis, Xinhua News Agency reported. 

Also, in the first quarter of this year, arrivals from the Chinese mainland to Japan dropped 54.6 percent year on year.

Since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made erroneous remarks on the Taiwan question, the number of visitors from the Chinese mainland to Japan has continued to decline, putting pressure on Japan’s retail, hospitality, and catering sectors.

Data released by the Japan Tourism Agency on April 15 showed that spending by visitors from the Chinese mainland to Japan totaled 271.5 billion yen ($1.71 billion) in the first quarter, down 50.4 percent year on year.

Amid a decline in visitors from the Chinese mainland, Japanese department store operator Takashimaya and J. Front Retailing both posted their first drop in net profit in five fiscal years in the last fiscal year, Xinhua reported. 

J. Front Retailing President Keiichi Ono said at an earnings briefing that the company will be difficult in the short term to offset the impact of the drop in Chinese visitors, the report said.

Chinese traffic data analysis platform DAST also said in a recent statement that a total of 2,691 flights from the Chinese mainland to Japan were canceled in March, with the cancellation rate reaching 49.6 percent, up 1.1 percentage points from February.

Industry insiders said subdued travel sentiment toward Japan has been driven mainly by erroneous remarks from Japanese politicians and a recent spate of safety incidents. Against that backdrop, it is understandable that many Chinese travelers are shifting their attention to other destinations during the May Day holidays. Weaker demand has also led to fluctuations in the number of flights to Japan.

The Chinese Embassy in Japan said on April 3 via its official website that incidents involving Chinese citizens in Japan, particularly tourists, such as travel disruptions and traffic accidents, had recently increased, and it therefore reminded Chinese nationals traveling to Japan to pay close attention to travel safety.

In addition, the Chinese Embassy in Japan said in an April 1 notice reminding Chinese citizens in Japan to be mindful of travel safety that incidents involving Chinese nationals in Japan, particularly tourists, including public security cases, traffic accidents and telecom fraud, had recently become more frequent.