A pedestrian in the underground shopping center in the Asakusa district in Tokyo, Japan. Photo: VCG

Visitor arrivals from the Chinese mainland to Japan tumbled 59.0 percent year-on-year to 418,000 in August as bilateral ties deteriorated over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's erroneous remarks, according to estimates by the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), Kyodo News reported.

Analysts warned that the slump is rippling through Japan's tourism, reliant on small businesses, at a time when the country is already grappling with economic headwinds.

Japan's overall inbound tourist numbers in August fell 9.6 percent year-on-year to 3.10 million, according to the JNTO.

All flights on 18 China-Japan routes were suspended throughout August, according to data that Flight Manager DAST sent to the Global Times on Thursday. A total of 1,120 flights from the Chinese mainland to Japan were canceled, representing a cancellation rate of 30.1 percent.

In July, 12 China-Japan routes were fully grounded, with 1,195 flight cancellations. In March, at the peak of the cherry blossom season, 53 routes halted operations, with 2,691 flights scrapped and a cancellation rate approaching 50 percent. Weekly scheduled passenger flights between China and Japan stood at 597, a sharp year-on-year drop of roughly 53 percent, according to DAST.

China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism last November advised its 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 (FM), which referred to a deteriorating security environment for Chinese citizens in Japan, as well as provocative remarks made by the Japanese leader regarding China's Taiwan, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's erroneous remarks have hurt the national feelings of the Chinese people. Many Chinese people, out of emotional concerns and safety worries, are clearly less willing to travel to Japan, Zhou Mi, a senior research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Chinese tourists were a major source of inbound tourism for Japan. Now, a sharp drop in visitors from the Chinese mainland will hit Japan's tourism industrial chain, affecting small businesses such as guesthouses and local restaurants, as well as shopping and entertainment services. This adds to the country's existing economic slowdown and job market pressures, Zhou said.

Takahide Kiuchi, a researcher at the Nomura Research Institute, predicted last November that the Chinese government's travel advisory may reduce Japan's tourism revenue by approximately 2.2 trillion yen ($13.8 billion) in 2026, dragging down Japan's real GDP by 0.36 percent.

In response to a question regarding dwindling exchanges between China and Japan, Chinese FM spokesperson Lin Jian told a press conference in May that the root cause of the serious difficulties in bilateral relations lies in Takaichi's erroneous remarks on China's Taiwan region.

The responsibility rests solely with the Japanese side. If the Japanese side truly hopes to improve relations with China, it should abide by the four political documents between the two countries and the commitments it made to China, retract its erroneous remarks, safeguard the political foundation for bilateral relations with concrete actions, and create the necessary conditions for normal exchanges with China, Lin said.