Japanese concerts in China are getting abruptly canceled as tensions simmer

China’s escalating dispute with Japan reinforces Beijing’s growing economic influence — and penchant for abrupt actions that can create uncertainty for businesses.

Hours before Japanese jazz quintet The Blend was due to perform in Beijing on Thursday, a plainclothesman walked into the DDC music club during a sound check.

Then, “the owner of the live house came to me and said: ‘The police has told me tonight is canceled. No discussion,’” said Christian Petersen-Clausen, a music agent who has organized more than 70 concerts in China over the last 12 months.

“Everything Japanese is canceled now,” he said. He added that he’d spent six months getting Chinese censors’ approval to allow The Blend to perform in the country.

DDC announced Thursday afternoon that the evening’s concert was canceled due to force majeure and that ticket holders would be automatically refunded in the coming days.

Japanese singer-songwriter Kokia’s Wednesday evening concert in Beijing was also canceled, according to the venue. Its public announcement, dated Thursday, blamed technical issues.

Again, there was little advance notice. One social media post from a fan described waiting outside the venue for more than an hour, until well past the time the concert was scheduled to start.

Other concerts by Japanese artists in China have also been canceled or postponed this week.

It appears to be the latest fallout from an escalating spat between China and Japan over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Nov. 7 comments indicating Tokyo would support Taiwan if seriously threatened by Beijing’s military. Beijing claims territorial rights to Taiwan, a democratically self-governed island. Taiwan rejects this claim and says that only its people can decide its future.

“The pace and scale of Beijing’s reactions ... are quite unprecedented,” said George Chen, partner of The Asia Group, a business policy consultancy based in Washington, D.C. He added that the biggest risk for Japanese brands in China would be a nationwide boycott, although so far there are limited signs that Chinese consumers are avoiding the brands at scale.

Two Chinese ministries late last week started warning citizens against traveling and studying in Japan. China’s Commerce Ministry on Thursday also threatened countermeasures against Japan if it “persisted on the wrong path,” according to a CNBC translation.

Mainland Chinese tourists have been the largest group of foreign visitors to Japan so far this year, and Nomura estimates bilateral tensions could cut the smaller Asian country’s GDP by 0.29%.