Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae shake hands ahead of the China-Japan summit held in Gyeongju on the 31st of last month. Yonhap News

China has advised its citizens to refrain from visiting Japan. Tensions between the two countries appear to be intensifying following comments by Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae about intervening in a Taiwan contingency.

According to Japan's Kyodo News and others on the 15th, the Chinese Embassy in Japan announced on its official WeChat account that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chinese embassy and consulates in Japan alert people to exercise strict caution about visiting Japan in the near future, and that Chinese nationals currently in Japan should closely check the local public security situation and heighten safety awareness.

The account said that a recent explicit, provocative statement by a Japanese leader regarding Taiwan had severely worsened the atmosphere for people-to-people exchanges between China and Japan, and that this had created significant risks to the personal safety and lives of Chinese nationals in Japan.

In response, Chief Cabinet Secretary Kihara Minoru, the Japanese government spokesperson, told reporters that this did not align with the broad direction of a strategic mutually beneficial relationship confirmed between the two leaders, and that multilayered communication between the two countries was important given their differences, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) reported.

According to Nikkei, following the Chinese Foreign Ministry advisory for its citizens regarding Japan, China Eastern Airlines, Air China, and China Southern Airlines issued notices stating they would process cancellations or changes for flights to Japan free of charge.

Tensions between the two countries have escalated since the 7th, when Prime Minister Takaichi, for the first time for a sitting Japanese prime minister, said in the House of Representatives (lower house) that a Taiwan contingency could constitute a survival-threatening situation under which Japan could exercise collective self-defense (use of force). Prime Minister Takaichi maintains that she will not retract the remarks．