Foreign languages are heard everywhere in Tokyo’s Ginza district.

A while ago, I went into a restaurant for lunch, thinking of having “katsudon” (a popular rice bowl topped with a deep-fried pork cutlet drizzled with a sweet-savory egg and onion mixture).

There, I noticed four well-dressed ladies, presumably tourists from China, chatting happily in their native tongue. Their voices carried.

After a while, one of the women suddenly looked as if she’d just realized something and said to her companions, “Hey, let’s pipe down a bit.”

Looking grave, she gestured for them to lower their voices.

“Here in Japan, people must find our chitchat noisy and annoying,” she explained.

With that, the ladies immediately started talking in whispers.

I, personally, did not find them noisy or annoying at all. Still, their courtesy and consideration were definitely appreciated.

For many years, Japan’s relations with China have remained strained. But, I thought, there was hope for the future so long as individual citizens of both countries could continue to understand and respect one another.

That being said, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks in the Diet about a “Taiwan contingency” were utterly unnecessary. Surely, Takaichi could not have been totally unaware of the subtlety of security-related issues.

She was eventually forced to promise to “refrain from making controversial comments again,” but what need was there, in the first place, for her to utter such comments at all?

But Beijing’s overreactions have also been cringeworthy.

What the Chinese consul general in Osaka posted on social media was incredibly tasteless, and I am also deeply disturbed by the seeming readiness with which Beijing decided to punish Tokyo by telling Chinese holidaymakers to refrain from visiting Japan.

Visitor traffic, which is fundamental to maintaining any bilateral relationship, also serves as a safety valve that should never be shut.

One side inadvertently starts a fire, and the other side fans the flames out of control.

When peace is all that the citizens want, why on earth do officials try to destroy it?

Gazing at the autumn sky above Ginza, I wonder what the four tourist ladies at the restaurant could be thinking now.

—The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 18

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.