The Japan Times reports that China will raise visa fees for Japanese visitors sevenfold. The report links the decision to Japan's introduction of higher visa fees for foreign nationals in July. For anyone in Japan planning a trip to China, the change lands at the visa stage, before flights or hotels.
The report gives the scale of the increase but not the amounts, the effective date or the visa categories covered. Treat the sevenfold figure as the reported scale rather than a confirmed price, and check the Chinese embassy or consulate in Japan, or the official Chinese visa application service centre, for the fee that applies to your application before you book.
Budget for a higher visa cost and allow extra time for the application. The report concerns visa fees, not flights, trains or hotels, so route options and airline schedules are unchanged; the visa is one line in a Japan-China trip budget.
The report does not specify which visa categories are affected, so travellers applying for tourism, business or transit visas should confirm the fee for their own category rather than assume one figure applies across the board. Official confirmation from Chinese visa authorities is the number to plan with.