Recent weeks have seen a sharp decline in Sino-Japanese people-to-people exchanges. All flights on 12 routes from mainland Chinese cities to Japan had been cancelled as of November 24, reportedly due to low demand. According to the Civil Aviation Data Analysis System, some 12 per cent of flights between China and Japan scheduled between November 24 and January 18 have been cancelled. On some routes, more than half have been cancelled.
Chinese tourists, Japan’s largest inbound group, had contributed about 590 billion yen (US$3.77 billion) in consumption in the July-September quarter alone this year.