TOKYO: Shares in Japanese tourism and retail firms fell sharply on Monday (Nov 17) after China warned its citizens not to travel to Japan in a spat over comments by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about Taiwan.
In morning trade, shares in cosmetics firm Shiseido dived 9 per cent, department store group Takashimaya by more than 5 per cent, and Fast Retailing – the owner of Uniqlo – by close to 6 per cent. Japan Airlines fell 3.9 per cent.
Shares of Isetan Mitsukoshi, a department store operator with sizeable sales to Chinese visitors, sank 11.4 per cent, poised for the biggest drop in more than a year.
Tokyo Disneyland operator Oriental Land lost 5.1 per cent, while Muji operator Ryohin Keikaku sank 9.4 per cent.
The benchmark Nikkei gauge of shares was down 0.7 per cent.
China is the biggest source of tourists to Japan.
Fuelled by the weak yen, tourism has become an increasingly important part of Japan’s economy. Visitors from mainland China comprised about 24 per cent of all tourists to Japan in September, the second most after those from South Korea, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.
Before taking power last month, Takaichi, an acolyte of ex-premier Shinzo Abe, was a vocal critic of China and its military build-up in the Asia-Pacific.
Her comments on Nov 7 were widely interpreted as implying that an attack on Taiwan, which is just some 100km from the nearest Japanese island, could warrant Tokyo’s military support.
If a Taiwan emergency entails “battleships and the use of force, then that could constitute a situation threatening the survival (of Japan), any way you slice it”, Takaichi told parliament.
Japan’s self-imposed rules say that it can only act militarily under certain conditions, including an existential threat.
The comments came just days after Takaichi met Chinese President Xi Jinping for an apparently cordial first meeting on the sidelines of an APEC summit in South Korea.
Takaichi, who has visited Taiwan in the past and called for closer cooperation, also met separately with Taipei’s representative at the summit.
