Masaaki Kanai (left), Japan’s prime diplomat for Asia and the Pacific, departs from the Chinese language Ministry of Overseas Affairs in Beijing on Nov. 18, 2025, after talks amid backlash from China over feedback by the Japanese prime minister. (AFP/Yonhap)
Amid China’s livid response to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remark {that a} Chinese language invasion of Taiwan would signify an existential menace to Japan, there are rising considerations that the 2 international locations will return to the antagonism seen throughout their territorial dispute over a gaggle of uninhabited islands over a decade in the past.
On Tuesday, Japanese information shops in contrast the sudden chill in China-Japan relations following Takaichi’s remarks earlier than the Weight loss plan on Nov. 7 to the 2012 feud over a cluster of islands generally known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan and the Diaoyu Islands in China, which was thought to be a postwar nadir in China-Japan relations. That dispute erupted when the Japanese authorities introduced its nationalization of the privately owned Senkaku Islands following repeated makes an attempt by Hong Kong activists to land on a number of the islands, which they claimed had been Chinese language territory.
China responded forcefully. Anti-Japanese demonstrations compelled main Japanese firms like Honda, Panasonic and Canon to halt operations at their Chinese language factories, whereas tons of of Japanese workers sheltered at dwelling for their very own security. A boycott on Japanese-made items had extreme financial ramifications, with gross sales of Japanese automobiles falling by practically half between September and October and the worth of Japanese exports to China in 2012 lowering by greater than 10% yr over yr.
In the course of the 2012 feud over the islands, China positioned restrictions on residents’ visits to Japan, simply because it has finished now in response to Takaichi’s remarks. Official figures present that Chinese language and Hong Kong residents visiting Japan within the following yr plummeted to only one-quarter of the earlier yr’s determine.
Persevering with anti-Japanese demonstrations endangered Japanese dwelling in China, and Japanese supermarkets had been vandalized and looted. 1000’s of demonstrators hurled rocks on the Japanese Embassy in Beijing whereas chanting slogans akin to “The Diaoyu Islands belong to China” and “Japanese, get out of right here!”
China and Japan have undergone a number of disputes of this sort over contested territorial claims and painful historic episodes, together with Japanese politicians’ persevering with visits to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, which honors “Class A” conflict criminals convicted by navy tribunals after World Conflict II.
The newest incident was when the Chinese language authorities prohibited imports of Japanese seafood for greater than two years over the Japanese authorities’s choice to dump contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear complicated into the ocean in 2023.
This time, nonetheless, the Japanese authorities is vigorously in search of an exit technique, partly as a result of Takaichi’s violation of the tacit settlement between China and Japan has given China a pretext for altering the established order. One other consideration is that Japan could be the loser if China unleashes full-fledged retaliation within the areas of the financial system and person-to-person alternate.
The Chinese language authorities warned Tokyo about financial retribution throughout their dispute over the Senkaku Islands, saying that if Japan loses the Chinese language market, it’ll lose the worldwide market as nicely, however that China will be capable of change Japan with its home market and rising markets.
There are fears in Japan that this incident may push China to make use of its distinctively confrontational type of diplomacy generally known as “wolf warrior diplomacy.” Overseas Minister Wang Yi, who’s an skilled on Japan, may search to take advantage of Takaichi’s remarks to undertake a extra muscular stance on the ministry.
“The Overseas Ministry will search to stop an extra deterioration of relations by holding deliberations with China on the bureau chief-level, however prospects are unsure,” Japanese each day newspaper the Asahi Shimbun wrote on Tuesday.
By Hong Seok-jae, Tokyo correspondent
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