China’s consumers still buying sushi, Japanese cars as Xi keeps spat in check

BEIJING – When China’s ties with Japan last spiralled over a decade ago, Beijing fuelled nationwide boycotts of Japanese brands and even street protests. This time around, President Xi Jinping is taking a more measured approach – for now, at least.

As Chinese fighter jets

trained radars on Japanese planes

over the high seas of Okinawa last weekend, diners in Shanghai were flocking to the opening of two sushi restaurants. Wait lines as long as 14 hours formed outside one of the conveyor-belt joints, as Japanese brand Sushiro expanded its stable of roughly 70 restaurants in China.

Oscar, a 22-year-old from Fujian province, who gave just his English name to discuss sensitive topics, was among its new customers.

Asked about the recent spat over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Nov 7 remarks suggesting Tokyo could deploy its military if China attempts to seize Taiwan, he took a balanced view. “I respect our government’s decision. But this is not political. It’s just having a meal,” he added, taking his seat at the buzzing restaurant. 

Asia’s top economies might be at loggerheads on the world stage, but for China’s 1.4 billion shoppers, it is largely business as normal. That is because while Communist Party officials have discouraged travel to Japan, limited seafood imports and cancelled some Japanese concerts and films, the authorities have avoided stoking public anger to a level beyond their control.

It marks an evolution in China’s economic coercion playbook, as leaders calibrate their retaliation to avoid denting already weak consumer spending at home or stirring up hard-to-contain social unrest. 

“Inciting public anger could lead to unpredictable outcomes that would potentially be difficult for the government to manage,” said Mr Jeremy Chan, a senior analyst at Eurasia Group and a former US diplomat in China and Japan. “Japanese foods and products remain immensely popular in China,” he added, calling the dispute over Ms Takaichi’s comments “abstract” to the general public.

On China’s largest online retailer, Tmall, revenues for some of Japan’s biggest brands operating in the world’s No. 2 economy have not seen a dent since the dispute began – with Uniqlo, Muji, Shiseido, Sony and Panasonic even clocking an increase in business, according to analytics firm Hangzhou Zhiyi Technology. 

Underscoring the need for calm, former Global Times editor-in-chief Hu Xijin – once one of China’s loudest nationalistic voices – in November warned against things getting too heated. “The struggle against Japan could be a protracted one,” he posted on his Weibo account. “Maintaining the firmness, rationality and unity of Chinese society means resilience and sustainability.”

The last time China’s ties with its neighbour spiralled to this extent was in 2012, after Tokyo decided to nationalise contested islands known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China – an uninhabited but possibly resource-rich area in the East China Sea. Back then, bellicose rhetoric in the Chinese state media helped stoke anti-Japanese protests in more than a dozen cities, including Beijing and Shanghai. 

Fast Retailing temporarily closed 42 of its Uniqlo stores in China – then its second-largest market by outlets – and superstore giant Aeon shut 30 of the 35 outlets it had in Guangdong and Shandong provinces. Images of an attack on a Chinese motorist in central Xi’an, beaten for driving a Toyota Corolla, tore through China’s internet, further deterring people from buying Japanese cars.

But at a Toyota dealership in Shenzhen on Dec 11, a saleswoman surnamed Cai said she had not seen any negative impact on sales of the company’s bZ3X model – a US$15,000 (S$19,400) electric car that is helping the brand claw back market share in China.

Shoppers milling around Uniqlo’s three-storey outlet in Beijing this week also seemed unbothered by the latest brouhaha.

“I want to stand by my country, but I don’t think the situation is so bad we need to stop buying Japanese products,” said one woman in her late 50s surnamed Liu. “Everything here is made in China anyway,” she added, browsing the brand’s famous HeatTech thermal leggings.

Another shopper surnamed Chen said she liked taking vacations in Japan but had cancelled a recent trip over safety concerns. “I saw videos online of Japanese people asking Chinese tourists why they were there,” she added. Deteriorating ties would not sway her shopping habits, she said, citing the need for good-quality clothes.

Footage of Muji’s newly renovated Chengdu store, in China’s south-western Sichuan province, painted a similar picture. Social media users in December complimented the store’s collaboration with local designers, as they tried products tailored to the Chinese market, including chilli-oil gelato. Given the situation, “I’m surprised it’s still packed”, wrote one user on social media platform Xiaohongshu.

The calm pervading the high street could change if Japan’s leader does not meet Beijing’s demand to retract her comments, said Mr Wu Xinbo, who has advised China’s Foreign Ministry.

“If Takaichi does not adjust her position on this issue, China is likely to increase the pressure,” said Mr Wu, who heads Fudan University’s Center for American Studies. “Let’s see what will happen.”

Back at the Sushiro sushi joint, a notice by the cash register urged customers’ cooperation when queueing, citing recent disturbances amid the throngs of excited diners: “Let’s work together to maintain civilisation and fairness.” Bloomberg