China has frozen regulatory reviews for new Japanese films, adding to the fallout from a dispute over Taiwan that shows little sign of easing.
The China Film Administration paused the approval process for new movies from Japan on Monday, according to two people familiar with the matter. The regulator also suspended six Japanese titles that had previously been approved and secured release dates, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing internal directives.
The moves show how tensions between the neighbors have spilled into the cultural sector and raised the economic stakes for Tokyo. The freeze came after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi became the first sitting Japanese leader in decades to publicly link a Taiwan Strait crisis with the possible deployment of Japanese troops.
The halt was ordered a day before Tokyo sent envoy Masaaki Kanai to Beijing in an effort to stabilize relations. The meeting appeared to have done little to soothe tensions, with Chinese diplomat Liu Jinsong expressing dissatisfaction with the talks.
China sees self-ruled Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to claim it someday, by force if necessary. Beijing has demanded Takaichi retract her comments and, as an apparent act of economic reprisal, warned Chinese citizens against traveling to Japan. China has also told Japan it will suspend imports of Japanese seafood, Kyodo News reported Wednesday.
Chinese state media reported on Monday that two Japanese films had been delayed from screening. The decision to delay the two films, Cells at Work! and a new Crayon Shin-chan movie, was based on “an assessment of the overall market performance of Japanese film imports and sentiment of Chinese audiences,” China Film News reported, citing distributors.
The four other affected films include Detective Conan: The Time-Bombed Skyscraper and The Exit 8.
Japanese films released before Monday’s suspension order are still showing in cinemas, according to Chinese ticketing sites. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle, a Japanese blockbuster anime released last Friday, has continued to top China’s box office, despite a plunge in ticket sales since Monday, according to data from ticketing platform Maoyan.
Japan is one of China’s largest sources of imported films. Japanese anime films in particular have enjoyed success in China in recent years, with some titles earning more in the world’s second-largest economy than they did back home.