Japan’s Chongqing consulate lacks top envoy amid China tensions

Japan’s diplomatic mission in the southwestern Chinese megacity of Chongqing has been left without a consul-general, as relations between Tokyo and Beijing remain strained.

The Japanese embassy in Beijing said the post in Chongqing is currently vacant but declined to provide further details, calling it a personnel matter. Other staff members, including the chief consul, are ensuring day-to-day operations remain unaffected, it said in a statement Thursday in response to a query.

The news was first reported by Nikkei, which said the post has been vacant for more than a month, citing unidentified sources. It said that Chinese authorities delayed responding to the Japanese government’s request to send a successor following the transfer of the previous consul-general.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara confirmed the vacancy at a regular press briefing but offered no explanation. “There is no change in our stance to pursue a strategic and mutually beneficial relationship, and seek to build constructive and stable ties with China,” he added.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Guo Jiakun, said at a regular briefing that Beijing is handling the matter “in accordance with procedures.”

The Japanese consulate in Chongqing declined to comment.

It’s unclear whether the vacancy at the Chongqing consulate is linked to the diplomatic feud. Relations between Asia’s two largest economies have soured since November, when Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested Japan could deploy its military alongside other countries if China attempted to seize Taiwan.

The remarks drew a furious response from Beijing, which warned Chinese tourists against traveling to Japan, banned Japanese seafood imports and ramped up diplomatic pressure to force Takaichi to retract her statement.

As she refused to do so, Beijing intensified pressure on Tokyo this month by banning all dual-use shipments for military use and threatening tighter controls on rare earths that underpin Japan’s auto sector. China also opened an anti-dumping probe into a key chipmaking material.

The escalating tensions have chilled commercial ties. A delegation of some 200 Japanese executives halted an annual visit to Beijing for the first time in 13 years, citing challenges in securing meetings with Chinese officials for the trip initially scheduled for January.

Chongqing is diplomatically and commercially less important than major coastal cities, with a relatively small Japanese community compared with places such as Shanghai.

As of October 2025, nearly 93,000 Japanese citizens were living in China, with about a third in Shanghai and a quarter in Hong Kong, according to data from the Japanese government. By contrast, the latest available figures as of 2020 show that about 268 Japanese citizens lived in Chongqing.

The Netherlands closed its Chongqing consulate in 2024 due to limited business presence there. In 2020, China shut the U.S. consulate in Chengdu — the capital of Sichuan province — in retaliation for Washington’s move to close the Chinese mission in Houston over spying accusations.