A commercial street in Sapporo city, Hokkaido, Japan Photo: VCG

August, the second half of the summer travel rush, saw a sharp pullback in China-Japan air capacity.

Industry data from Flight Master showed that 18 routes between the two countries were completely suspended, with 1,120 flights from the Chinese mainland to Japan cancelled - a cancellation rate of 30.1 percent, according to data sent to the Global Times by the aviation data provider on Tuesday.

The cancelled routes included those from Shenyang to Kansai, Shanghai to Niigata, and Wuhan to Narita.

In July, all flights on 12 routes from the Chinese mainland to Japan were cancelled. A total of 1,195 flights were cancelled, representing a cancellation rate of 31.4 percent.

The trend is echoed with those outbound travel.

Data from another travel information platform Umetrip, showed that during the summer travel season, Asian cities dominated the list of the most popular international destination routes for Chinese travelers. 

Seoul, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur were the top five destinations for outbound travelers. Among them, passenger traffic to Seoul increased by over 30 percent year-on-year, while passenger traffic to Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, and Singapore all grew by approximately 20 percent year-on-year.

These figures were released as Japan's official data pointed to a negative trend.

The number of visitor arrivals from the Chinese mainland to Japan fell 56.1 percent year on year in July, marking the eighth consecutive month of decline, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.

Chinese mainland visitor arrivals in the first seven months of 2026 dropped 56.3 percent from the same period a year earlier.

Tourist arrivals from the Chinese mainland accounted for about 10.1 percent of all foreign visitor arrivals to Japan in the first seven months of this year, well below the 22.8 percent recorded in the same period of 2025, according to the Xinhua News Agency on August 19, citing a report by Nikkei.

The total number of foreign visitor arrivals to Japan from January through July declined 1.7 percent from the same period a year earlier. Analysts said that if the current trend continues, the full-year figure for 2026 could fall below the previous year's number, marking the first annual decline in five years, Xinhua said.