Taiwan envoy skips Nagasaki memorial over seating row and China concerns

Tokyo,UPDATED: Aug 10, 2026 17:56 IST

Taiwan's top economic representative in Japan said he boycotted this year's memorial in Nagasaki marking the 81st anniversary of the US atomic bombing, accusing city officials of being pro-China and insulting Taipei. Lee Yi-yang, head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Tokyo, said the seating arrangement showed Nagasaki had "deliberately denied Taiwan's status as a nation, completely disregarding Taiwan's sovereignty and dignity".

Lee said he and two deputies stayed away because their designated seats were not among those reserved for diplomatic missions. Instead, he sent a lower-ranked official from Fukuoka. "I think there shouldn't be any discrimination at a place where we pray together for a world without a war or nuclear weapons," that official, Chen Ming-chun, told Nippon Television.

Lee's office said Nagasaki had acted as "a pawn of China's insistence that Taiwan is not a state and has no sovereignty". Nagasaki officials rejected the charge, saying seats for Taiwanese officials were placed just behind other envoys and were not clearly marked as seats for non-diplomatic guests. "We have courteously accommodated their attendance," Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki told reporters, denying Lee's allegation that the city was bowing to China. "Taiwan is a partner with strong ties with Nagasaki and we place great importance to our relationship."

The Asahi newspaper reported that the seats planned for the Taiwan officials were part of arrangements for foreign attendees from international organisations and envoys who could not be accommodated in a special guests section for ambassadors and top Japanese officials. Nagasaki officials said Sunday's memorial at Peace Park was attended by representatives from 98 countries and three international organisations, including the United Nations, the European Union and the Committee of the Red Cross.

Japan and China normalised diplomatic ties in 1972, ending war-time hostility. Under their joint communique, Tokyo recognised diplomatic ties with Beijing and ended them with Taipei, though Japan and Taiwan continue to have close economic and trade relations through non-governmental channels. Nagasaki officials said the city adopted a policy of inviting countries, regions and organisations that have diplomatic missions in Japan or at the United Nations, including North Korea and countries in conflict, after the 2024 memorial was boycotted by then US ambassador Rahm Emanuel and envoys from five other G7 countries because Israel had not been invited. Taiwan does not fall into either invited category, but officials said its representatives were accommodated at their request last year.

Lee said he had attended the August 6 atomic bombing memorial in Hiroshima, where he was treated equally with other foreign envoys. He also said Taiwan had shown itself to be a peace-loving nation, while China had increasingly threatened the region through rapid military growth and nuclear weapons. Lee, who took up his post in Japan in September 2024, became last year the first Taiwanese representative from the liaison office to attend the Hiroshima and Nagasaki ceremonies. He said he had received a similar seat assignment in Nagasaki last year but did not raise the issue then in order to prioritise friendship. The Nagasaki bombing on August 9, 1945 killed 70,000 people by the end of that year, three days after the Hiroshima bombing killed 140,000, and Japan surrendered on August 15, ending World War II and its war across Asia.

The dispute over this year's ceremony centred on where Taiwan's representatives were seated, with Lee calling it discriminatory and Nagasaki insisting it had accommodated them courteously while maintaining its invitation policy.

With PTI Inputs

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