Overview
- Senior diplomat Masaaki Kanai traveled to China for talks with counterpart Liu Jinsong, with Tokyo set to stress that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments do not represent a policy shift.
- China warned citizens against visiting Japan and airlines offered free changes or refunds, triggering sharp declines in Japanese tourism and retail shares including double-digit losses for Shiseido.
- Four Chinese coast guard ships entered waters near the Japan-administered Senkaku Islands on Sunday and Japan reported a suspected Chinese drone near Yonaguni, while Taiwan noted heightened PLA activity.
- State-linked outlets signaled possible economic retaliation and China’s Foreign Ministry said Premier Li Qiang has no meeting arranged with Takaichi at the upcoming G20 summit.
- Public opinion in Japan is split on exercising collective self-defense in a Taiwan conflict, and Takaichi has declined to retract her statement that certain uses of force could meet the legal threshold.