Japan to suffer huge economic loss from plunge in Chinese visitors: analyst

China

Japan to suffer huge economic loss from plunge in Chinese visitors: analyst

2025-11-17 13:16 Last Updated At：16:27

Japan could suffer an economic loss exceeding 2.2 trillion yen (about 14 billion U.S. dollars) from a drastic drop in Chinese visitor numbers, a leading Japanese economist projected on Sunday.

Takahide Kiuchi, executive economist at Nomura Research Institute, made the assessment hours after China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism formally urged its citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Japan, citing security concerns. The alert followed a similar advisory issued by China's foreign ministry on Friday.

Kiuchi said that a sharp drop in Chinese visitors could reduce Japan's GDP by 0.36 percent, highlighting the potential economic vulnerability as tourism emerges as a key industry for Japan.

Moreover, Chinese tourists have been the top spenders in Japan's tourism market. According to Japan Tourism Agency statistics, Chinese visitors led all foreign tourists in spending in Japan in 2024.

According to the Chinese foreign ministry, China is Japan's largest trading partner, second largest export destination and largest source of imports, with bilateral trade totaling 308.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2024, including 156.25 billion U.S. dollars in Japanese exports to China.

Japan revises Q3 GDP contraction to 2.3 pct

Japan's economy shrank an annualized real 2.3 percent in the third quarter of 2025, revised government data showed on Monday, compared with an initially reported 1.8 percent drop.

The revised figure for gross domestic product (GDP) from the Cabinet Office marked the fastest contraction since the third quarter of 2023.

In the three months through September, real GDP, adjusted for inflation, contracted 0.6 percent on a quarter-on-quarter basis, compared with the preliminary reading of a 0.4 percent decline, data showed.

Private consumption, which accounts for more than half of the economy, inched up a revised 0.2 percent in July-September, compared with the initial estimate of 0.1 percent.

Among other key components, the capital expenditure, a barometer of private demand, fell 0.2 percent, lowered from the initial estimate of a 1.0 percent gain.

External demand, or exports minus imports, subtracted 0.2 percentage points from the GDP, unchanged from the preliminary reading.