TOKYO, Dec 17 — Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said today she is “always open” to dialogue with China despite a diplomatic row between Tokyo and Beijing over comments she made about Taiwan.

“China is an important neighbour for Japan, and we need to build constructive and stable relationships,” Takaichi told a news conference.

“Japan is always open to dialogue with China. We’re not shutting our door.”

China and Japan are enmeshed in a spat over Takaichi’s suggestion in November that Tokyo could intervene militarily in any attack on the self-ruled democratic island.

China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has threatened to use force to bring it under its control.

The comments triggered a sharp diplomatic backlash from Beijing, which has urged its citizens to avoid travelling to Japan.

Official data released today showed the warning has had an impact on visitor numbers.

Arrivals from mainland China to Japan last month edged up just three per cent from a year earlier, the weakest growth since January 2022, according to the Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO).

Around 560,000 travellers from China visited Japan last month, representing a three-per-cent year-on-year increase, the JNTO said, citing the travel warning as a factor in the modest hike.

The year-on-year growth of Chinese visitors to Japan had steadily hovered in the double digits for months — 22.8 per cent in October, 18.9 per cent in September and 36.5 per cent in August.

China is the biggest source of tourists to the Japanese archipelago, with almost 7.5 million visitors in the first nine months of 2025 — a quarter of all foreign tourists, according to official figures.

Attracted by a weak yen, they splashed out the equivalent of US$3.7 billion in the third quarter.

Each Chinese tourist spent on average 22 per cent more than other visitors last year, according to the JNTO.

In the latest escalation of the row this month, Chinese military aircraft locked radar onto Japanese jets, prompting Tokyo to summon Beijing’s ambassador. — AFP