China is Japan's largest trading partner, its largest source of tourists, and the supplier of most of the rare earths its carmakers and electronics firms need. Since the Japanese prime minister's remarks on Taiwan in November 2025, China has advised its citizens not to travel to Japan, stopped buying Japanese seafood, cancelled concerts and film releases, banned the export of goods with military uses, put dozens of Japanese companies on a control list, slowed rare earth shipments and detained Japanese nationals. It describes each measure as lawful and unrelated to the others.
The wider rivalry and each side's full account: Japan and China.
Where it stands · September 2026
On 11 September 2026 China raised visa fees for Japanese visitors sevenfold, citing reciprocity for Japanese charges. The measure is the most recent change to the terms on which Japanese citizens may enter China. It follows the earlier restrictions on Japanese seafood imports and the limits on rare earth exports to Japanese buyers. No agreement has reversed any of these measures. Travel between the two countries now carries a higher administrative cost for Japanese applicants than at any point since the dispute began.
What the dispute is about
Are they sanctions. China announces no sanctions. It issues a travel advisory on safety grounds, a food import rule on health grounds, export controls on security grounds, and arrests on grounds of espionage or smuggling. Japan notes that they arrive together and leave together.
Who depends on whom. Japan needs Chinese minerals and the Chinese market. China needs Japanese machine tools, chemicals and components, and has so far left that trade alone.
The precedent. China used the same instruments against Japan in 2010 and 2012, against South Korea in 2017 and Australia in 2020. Each target found other markets and suppliers within a few years.
