Just days after China issued a travel advisory to avoid Japan due to a political spat between the two nations, Rie Takeda began receiving cancellations from Chinese visitors who couldn't attend her tea ceremony class in Tokyo.

Tucked away in an alley in the historic district of Asakusa, around 3,000 Chinese tourists visit her tearoom every year, where a classroom of up to 40 students can watch and experience a traditional Japanese tea ceremony.

But thousands of Chinese tourists cancelled trips to Japan earlier this week after tensions between the two countries recently escalated, over Japan’s newly elected Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggesting Japan could become militarily involved if China invaded Taiwan, a self-governing island.

While the tourist sites in Asakusa were still teeming with visitors, including those from the mainland China, some business operators in the tourism industry were feeling the heat from the political fallout.

Japan saw a record number of tourists last year with spending by overseas tourists surging above 8 trillion yen ($52 billion). Chinese tourists accounted for 21% of that, the largest share by nationality.

Some fear that China’s latest travel boycott will come as a blow to the Japanese economy.

Takahide Kiuchi, executive economist at Nomura Research Institute, estimates the current travel advisory could cost Japan 1.8 trillion yen ($11.5 billion), knocking 0.3 percentage points off the country's already low annual economic growth.

AP video shot by Ayaka McGill